The Craning Gap

Quiet Consideration

2011-12-29T04:58:00.001-05:00

Of many things, including coming back, coming back here, re-opening my thoughts to the world. It's been strange, the past six months. Strange and self-altering. All in time. But for now, Christmas. I hope yours was merry, bright, and white.

365: #018 Two Tiny Dresses

2011-08-12T19:30:00.001-04:00

When I wrestled up these two Madeline dolls out of a giant bowl of Barbies at the Salvation Army, they were naked and they were dirty. The dirty part was taken care of easily with a Magic Eraser, but the naked would need a little extra something. Two tiny dresses!

Two of my favorite calicos came out of the stash for this project. An olive green with parasols and a deep rose with green paisleys. I cut two little A-lines, one shorter than the other on accident, but that's alright- Madeline's shorter and needs the help!

They were both in need of a great little carved shell button from the stash of antiques. Love them!

Their identities aren't altogether secret in these new dresses though- I was totally amused to see that Madeline bears her appendectomy scar!

(Eeek- maybe they need panties, next.)

365: #017 Birthday Bunting

2011-08-11T18:55:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't take photos of the process for 365, but I'm more than happy to walk you through it all the same- faced with a less-than-adequate budget for the party, I decided to scrap the idea of fancy altogether and make simple homemade decorations- first, her birthday bunting! Mine was entirely inspired by all the nifty newspaper buntings over at Maya*Made!

To start I made a template of the little pennants, then cut how many I needed out of some pages from an old book I've been using for an altered book project, (I needed 19 for the phrase "happy birthday Aurora")

I love old book pages for projects, they look so great. These I washed over in bright Crayola watercolors, and then darkened in the edges with Crayola crayons. I totally don't mind brand placement right here, because I have never used better kids products. Crayola has it nailed with regards to their pigment-to-carrier ratio. Anyway!

I painted the letters on with white acrylic paint, then did a drop shadow with a black Sharpie, and finally, using a bunched up paper napkin, pounced them all over with silver glitter glue. The glue picked up some of the pigment from the watercolors and daubed it back on top of the white letters, making them look really soft and vintage.

I let them dry, then left them overnight pressed between heavy books, as the watercolors and glue had caused the paper to curl up.

In the morning, Ro helped me glue them down the length of some white cotton yarn, and we strung them up, just in time for the party!

(Even the backs look good!)

Birthday Party Cheesecake Jelly Bean Boom!

2011-08-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

While we didn't have the party we originally planned, we still made plenty of space for our out-of-town friends who were still planning to come celebrate with us. The party was smaller and less involved, but still plenty of fun. And although the pink lemonade cupcakes were a total failure, and none of my crudite got served, there was still lots of friends, and lots of laughter, and a big bouquet of perfect-pink roses from Daddy. I'm pretty sure she wasn't disappointed.

This child is five today.

2011-08-07T01:59:00.000-04:00

Two Weeks

2011-07-28T23:34:00.000-04:00

I took a short two-week break from blogging, went out, did things. Married people, sought out a school, went on a trip with my mom friends out in the country, did a lot of cleaning and thinking and thinking and cleaning. Plenty of posts to come from all the radio silence. =)

Exploring Albany's Past, Part 2

2011-07-14T12:00:00.014-04:00

I love cemeteries, that's not news. There's so much peace and beauty inherent within them, and I don't fear the dead, really, not as much as I used to- like when I was too young to be reading True Ghost Stories of Nightmare and Doom but was doing it anyway and had to sleep with the lights on.

My favorite cemetery in the capital district is Oakwood in Troy, and now that I live here, I'm kind of there all the time. (It's the only place I can jog and I know people aren't watching me. Just geese.) I took Ro up there a couple of weeks ago, and she loved the adventure of it. Oakwood amazingly has a total of 11 miles of roads that twist and intersect throughout hills and chapels and gorgeous sculptures. We took the big loop around the outside, seeking out the overlook, the pond, the waterfall, and of course- the animals!

Ro asked me, "There's dead people under these stones, Mama?" And I said, "Yep." And she said, "So if you dig them up, you will find their bones?" And I said, "Yes, but that's called exhuming, and it's against the law, and the police would find us and be really mad, so we're not going to do that." And she said, "Okay!" I love how everything is so easy with her. Yeah, dead people, no big deal. Let's go see the geese!

Come check it out with us. =)

Exploring Albany's Past

2011-07-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

The other week I woke up, a Saturday morning, and I thought, let's do something. I went quickly over to Capital District Fun, which for me is the most comprehensive listing of family events in the Albany area, end of story. A lesson I learned the hard way when trying to 'compete' with her while working for KFP. Impossible! Anyway, Katie is seriously amazing and puts a lot of hard work into that blog, so check her out for sure if you're a local with kids.

I discovered that there was a cheap and fun planetarium show for kids at the Albany Heritage Area Visitor's Center, so I gathered up the family and packed them along. The planetarium show was adorable, perfect for kids, but what I really loved was the museum, where I got to find out all kinds of great stuff about the people I'm not related to, (which really bummed me out because I always thought for sure I was, but Ancestry.com has proven me wrong yet again.)

I think these are hilarious. I mean, I totally look normal in garb, right? I do, but man, Zack looks sublime in his patroon-ing getup. And Ro is Ro, no matter where she goes (in time.)

These teeny scale models of 17th (above) and 19th (below) century Albany, respectively, are too cute for words. I found myself fogging up the glass and muttering things about wanting to live there. I want to live there! (Then!) And then Zack had to be a buzzkill and mumble, "But there would be no internet."

It was a really fun day.

Gamers

2011-07-12T20:53:00.000-04:00

That's just who we are.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-08T15:00:00.004-04:00

This year we took Ro out to Summerfest and saw one of my favorite bands (that also happens to be a local band) Hair of the Dog. We enjoyed some maple fried dough, fireworks, and awesome Irish folk music. It was a great night, and Ro got to try cotton candy for the first time when she made friends with someone who had a big bag and a big heart! She spent the evening dancing, snacking, and then over at Amy's house she got to light her first sparklers. We had a blast.

Capital District Farmer's Market Guide [Updated 9/2010]

2011-07-08T12:00:00.003-04:00

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine 9/2010. Yes, I own my content.

Let me guess. For many of you, the children in your lives probably think that all food begins its journey from start to plate in a grocery store, and have likely never comprehended the words ‘farm’ and ‘market’ in the same place at the same time. I base this guess upon my four-year-old, whom, when I told her we were going to a Farmer’s Market, wanted to know where the cows were, and insisted I put her in overalls because they were “farm pants”. This was looking more and more like a learning opportunity at every turn.

I decided to triangulate the capital district, starting out from my hometown of Halfmoon in Saratoga County and visiting three different markets. My husband and daughter in tow, I ventured first to Troy for the Waterfront Market, then to the Halfmoon Farmer’s Market, and finally to the Schenectady Greenmarket, each one unique.

I had first heard about the Troy market from my friend Amanda, who lives right in the same downtown area and does a healthy amount of shopping there. It was at her house that I first tasted and fell in love with two local products that had been purchased at the market. Saratoga Peanut Butter Company’s Monkey Boy (16oz, $5,) a banana-flavored, raisin studded, smooth and natural concoction that’s sure to put a smile on any (peanut friendly) child’s face, and Lloyd Spear Beekeeper’s raw honey ($10.50 buys you at least a few months worth,) a beautiful golden and subtly floral syrup that you can actually taste the openness of nature in.

The Troy Waterfront Market has a high community atmosphere. Vendor stalls march along in rows, nestled between the old brick walls of the downtown buildings and the glittering waters of the Hudson River. Shade trees offer prime spots to settle down with a cup of hot fair trade coffee and a pastry from one of several local bakers, and a winding walkway leads you down from the food, along the water’s edge to a cluster of stalls offering crafts from local artisans. While sitting on a hill and eating my blueberry muffin from The Placid Baker, I noticed someone I knew in the crowd- a friend of mine whose baby girl has just started solids, her bag filled with vegetables to make home-cooked baby foods. All at once I felt transported to another place, where markets like this are the norm, and seeing your friends and neighbors gathering still-dirty produce into tote bags is just another day in the life.

Halfmoon was a different experience altogether. Located at the fresh and modern looking Grace Fellowship North on Route 146, it’s just kicking off on its feet this summer. It was an intimate assortment of very local produce vendors, offering not much more than one finds at the smattering of sporadically placed farm stands that line the roads in this part suburban, part rural area. Everyone has to start somewhere, though, and with the amount of farming that takes place in Halfmoon, I suspect we can see great things in short order.

The time I spent at the Schenectady Greenmarket was perhaps the most enjoyable. While there is great overlap in vendors between Schenectady and Troy, the Greenmarket seems to have a life of its own. One thing it had going for it immediately was that it offered exponentially better parking opportunities than Troy when it comes to being within downtown city limits. The vendor stalls sit beneath the gleaming gold dome of city hall, forming a right angle and taking up two closed-off city streets, reminiscent of a block party. It intersects with the unique cobblestoned shopping district of Jay Street, and offers a center stage for live music performances to sit and enjoy in the open air. Here we got the opportunity to try Pixie’s Preserves, (190ml $5-$7,) where my daughter and I fell in love with the cantaloupe flavor, a bright orange, perfectly summer flavored jam that quite nearly spirited me away.

This market, like so many others, really seemed to bring the farm-to-city approach to the fore for me, the connection of the concrete jungle to the open fields in a way that feels properly balanced. You see the future by way of the past, embracing a hope that the grocery store, the clunky metal cart, and the recycled air will become less and less of a necessity in our everyday lives.

Farmer’s Market Tips:

Don’t forget to bring your reusable shopping bags, but if you plan to buy a lot, consider investing in a rolling basket. (Black Folding Shopping Cart, $28, Target.com)
In city areas, parking goes fast, so arrive early and don’t forget you’ll need to walk back to your car with all of your shopping!
Another great reason to arrive early is that you’ll have the best selection of goods to choose from.
However, if you arrive before closing, you’re likely to get the best deals out of the vendors, who don’t want to have to carry all that food back home with them.
If you’re worried about dirty beets, or just like to be organized, buy a few sets of muslin produce bags (check the Produce Bags section of EcoBags.com) or make your own!
Don’t worry about cramming down breakfast in a rush before you head out, the selection of coffee, fruit, pastries and fresh foods is bound to satisfy any picky eater in your family.

The Guide:

Empire State Plaza Farmer’s Market
The Empire State Plaza, Harriman State Office Campus, Albany
Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays, 10am-2pm

Downtown Albany Farmer’s Market
Maiden Lane Park, Albany
Thursdays, 11am-2pm

Ballston Spa Farmer’s Market
Wiswall Park, Ballston Spa
Thursdays, 3pm-6pm, Saturdays, 9am-12pm

Bethlehem Grange Farmer’s Market
Grange Community Center, SR 396, Selkirk
Thursdays, 12pm-5pm

Cambridge Farmer’s Market
Cambridge Rail & Freight Yard, Main St, Cambridge
Sundays 10am-2pm

CDPHP Farmer’s Market
Patroon Creek Blvd, Albany
Thursdays, 11am-1:30pm

Clifton Park Farmer’s Market
St. George’s Episcopal, Rt 146, Clifton Park
Thursdays, 2pm-5pm

Cohoes Farmer’s Market
Remsen St Municipal Parking Lot, next to Smith’s Restaurant, Cohoes
Fridays, 4pm-7pm

Colonie Farmer’s Market
Albany-Shaker Road, Across from Emerick Lane, Colonie
Saturdays, 9am-1pm

Delmar Farmer’s Market
Bethlehem Middle School, 332 Kenwood Ave, Delmar
Saturdays, 9am-1pm

Fort Edward Farmer’s Market
Broadway Lanes, Rt 4, Fort Edward
Fridays, 10am-1pm

Glens Falls Market
South St Market Pavilion, Downtown Glens Falls
Saturdays, 8am-12pm

Granville Farmer’s Market
Main St, Granville
Mondays, 2pm-5pm

Greenwich Farmer’s Market
Former IGA parking lot on Main St, Greenwich
Thursdays 2pm-5:30pm

Halfmoon Farmer’s Market
Grace Fellowship North, Rt 146, Clifton Park
Sundays, 9am-1pm

Hudson Farmer’s Market
Motor Vehicle parking lot, 6th & Columbia Streets, Hudson
Saturdays, 9am-1pm

Kinderhook Farmer’s Market
Village Square and Green, Kinderhook
Saturdays, 8am-12:30pm

Malta Farmer’s Market
Dave Meager Community Center, Rt 9, Malta
Tuesdays 11am-2pm

Capital District Farmer’s Market
381 Broadway (Rt 32), Menands
Saturdays, 9am-1pm

Niskayuna Farmer’s Market
Niskayuna Reformer Church at Rt 7, Niskayuna
Tuesdays, 3pm-7pm

Queensbury Farmer’s Market
Elk’s Club Lot, 23 Cronin Rd, Queensbury
Mondays, 3pm-6pm

Rensselaer Farmer’s Market
Twin Town Little Fields, Williams Rd, Troy
Thursdays, 2:30pm-5:30pm

Saratoga Farmer’s Market
Under the Pavilions, High Rock Avenue, Saratoga Springs
Wednesdays, 3pm-6pm, Saturdays, 9am-1pm.

Schenectady Greenmarket
Around City Hall, Schenectady
Sundays, 10am-2pm

Scotia Village Farmer’s Market
Municipal Parking Lot along Mohawk Ave, Scotia
Tuesdays, 11am-2pm

Troy Waterfront Farmer’s Market
Headley Park Place, 433 River St, Troy
Saturdays, 9am-1pm

Waterford Harbor Farmer’s Market
1 Tugboat Alley, Waterford
Sundays, 9am-2pm

Watervliet Farmer’s Market
Parking Lot across from Fire Department, Watervliet
Tuesdays, 2:30pm-5:30pm

Whitehall Farmer’s Market
Park on Boulevard, across from Canal, Whitehall
Tuesdays, 1pm-4pm

Have one you'd like to add to the list? Drop a comment!

A Taste of Tasty Architecture

2011-07-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

There is something so wonderful about living in a big Victorian city that was not wonderful about living in a commercial boomtown in the suburbs, and that's the buildings. They're amazing. Ro and I went for a walk around to check out some of the beauties in the Washington Square area.

365: #016 Button Necklace (again!)

2011-07-07T17:17:00.000-04:00

These buttons are amazing. I am loving them all. You know what else I'm really loving right now? The super boho, earthy, pseudo-medieval fashion ideals of combining fibers and metals and found objects. That's rad. So here's my contribution- an old chain, some crewel wool, and this fabulous cut-glass button that looks like a big old gemstone. Five minute project, one killer necklace. Follow along!

Not to go all Ina Garten on you, but how easy was that? All I did was use a standard friendship bracelet knot to "wrap" the chain with the wool, and halfway down I just stuck the wool through the button. Easy peasy.

Looks pretty nice with the amethyst necklace I just restrung! Loving it.

Reading: Update

2011-07-07T03:35:00.001-04:00

It's been a bit since I updated this, but I have slammed through the next two books in the Song of Ice and Fire series,and though I skipped some fair portions of them because bits of the plot were really starting to make me want to crush heads and break windows, I got through them. I love the world, I love the characters, and I think that there's absolutely nothing Martin is doing wrong other than toying with my patience! =)

I'm such a Daenerys loyalist anyway, I'm pretty sure all the books should be entirely about her. Shame on me. Also, I'm loving the TV series and good on HBO for putting together something that's equally gorgeous and true to the books. I'm so thrilled.

June 18, A Storm of Swords, George RR Martin
June 10, A Clash of Kings, George RR Martin
May 26th, A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
April 13th, Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire
February 8th, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood.
January 26th, Plot, Ansen Dibell.
January 24th, The Knot's Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions, Carley Roney.
January 22nd, Of Bees and Mist, Erick Setaiwan.
January 19th, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (read twice, back to back.)

365: #015 My Office

2011-07-06T22:37:00.000-04:00

My office isn't technically a craft, but it was a challenge, and it was a project, and getting it organized, with a real desk, has meant the difference between getting crafty stuff done, and not. A few days ago on Facebook I asked all my friends if anyone had a door. The desk situation I was stuck with wasn't so great. I had this gorgeous green-trimmed wood and metal farmhouse table from the turn of the century I was using as a desk, but the skirting on it is too low for me to get my knees under! It was really uncomfortable, it wasn't working, and it was causing me to turn our second sofa into my office, which sort of meant the living room was always a mess, with books and paperwork everywhere. No thank you!

Lucky for me, JG had just received a door along with a shipment of cabinetry for a job he's working on, and was wondering what the heck he was going to do with it. Then he saw my post! So I took that door and I laid it down, straddled between the aforementioned farmhouse table and a small bookcase I had that just happened to be the exact same height as the table and width of the door- how lucky was that?

Now, I have this huge, awesome desk, decorated with my great grandmother's vintage tablecloth, and my office actually looks organized- mostly! I'm getting much more done.

(That's my cooling pad. The laptop was in the bedroom at the time.)

Ro's old changing table has been repurposed as fabric storage and book storage for all my work/wedding/religious reference books.

I had a great view of the incoming thunderstorm from that window this afternoon. I really do love being on the third floor!

Bad Hair Month

2011-07-06T22:18:00.000-04:00

So, I cut my own hair. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, I've always done all my own body modifications, at least since my teens. The cutting, dying, and piercing... it's all been me. For layering my hair, I use a great method I learned from an adorable British chick on YouTube.

I've been using this method for almost a year now, but this time, I cut it a little too short. Just a little. And my bangs really tick me off, since they were sort of accidental and are now always in my eyes. I thought I'd share my most recent favorite method for getting them out of my face when it's eight thousand degrees out.

It's as easy as this:

Yank them off to one side,
braid them quick and tight,
and pin them back with a secure bobby pin "X" -

Done! The look is cute and a little boho and I find myself falling back on it pretty much every day. At least until they grow out, anyway.

This Here Career

2011-07-06T15:00:00.003-04:00

How cool is my job? Honestly sometimes I have a hard time getting over it. I was just looking over the photos from Joann and Manny's wedding and I can't help thinking I've actually struck gold. Awesome career path gold. Is it a regular paycheck? No way, but it is so, so worth it.

Technically I'm a minister, which is as amusing as much as it is confusing. While by all technicalities I have a church, I am not active in a ministry. Instead, I get to take this title and use it to learn. My interest in religions is similar to that of my interest in wine. They all taste different, they're grown differently, they're different colors and different sweetnesses and they pair well with different sorts of things, but they're all interesting, and all worth a sip, even if you discover you hate the taste. Some of my best friends like dry, sharp reds. Me, I'm a sweet whites kind of girl.

Steve, I'm looking at you and the moscato we love.

I've taken this analogy too far.

So that's the cool thing, pairing different, interesting beliefs with new and amazing people to make this one moment exactly perfect, and just for them. I've done five weddings sofar, with eight more on the table. I've had the chance to do some really rad things in the past few months. I wrote a ceremony where a couple performed a song together- it was incredible. I have read poetry without messing up my lines - unprecedented! I have performed two handfastings. I have changed the wording of the entire ceremony mere moments before the bride was slated to walk up the aisle simply so that the groom, who was too nervous to speak, wouldn't have to say anything other than 'I do'. I've helped with floral arrangements (both creating them, and rescuing them when the wind tears them from the altar,) and of course- setting up chairs. I've had to run for cover in the middle of a ceremony because a sudden downpour was drenching the bride and the vows were getting soaked. All this, and I've only done FIVE weddings. Wow.

Anyway, all of this is simply to say that I have so many cool stories, and I'm only nine months in. I can't wait to keep racking them up. Every couple I meet and work with is awesome, is unique, and is totally worth getting ordained. I think about them all the time. I think about my job all the time. I don't think I'll ever do anything else, ever again. Nope. I'm good with this.

Frozen All-Fruit Berry Pops YUM

2011-07-06T12:00:00.002-04:00

What do you do when you have a pound each of cherries and strawberries that are about to go squirrely and a kid who is miserable at the onslaught of a sudden heat wave? (Hence her lack of clothes above, do pardon. It's always about a million degrees in our west-facing kitchen.) Anyway the answer is POPSICLES. Of course!

Ingredients:
Cherries
Strawberries
Water

(Come on, did I even need to type that? Also? How good would peach/blueberry be? Or banana/strawberry? Or mango/pineapple, or or or or...)

Get out that blender! And then enlist a little helper to pick all those darn stems and pits out of the cherries while you hull the strawberries.

Grab your husband's PSP and put on some internet radio, 'cause the hulling and pitting kind of take a while.

I don't have popsicle molds, but what I do have are these little vintage juice glasses- five of them. I gathered them on a plate, then made sure there was enough space in the freezer to set it.

Now, BLITZ! I did the strawberries first, and I added some water- not even half a cup, just to get things moving around in there.

Pour evenly into the glasses. (Or unevenly. These are your pops, after all.)

Repeat with cherries cherries cherries!

Layer! Once filled up, stick 'em in the freezer. To freeze. But only for a little while! Once there's a good frozen "crust" on top, you're going to want to get out some sticks and stick them in. The crust will hold the sticks upright (and all of this is assuming you aren't using an ice pop mold! If you are, disregard these directions!)

Do you have any idea how many of these suckers I have? I can't make gnome houses out of all of them, you know.

All done! Let them freeze until rock solid and then run under warm water to release from the glasses (or popsicle molds, if you've got them.) Then revel in how wise you are because your kid thinks they're getting some kind of exciting special treat, but it's actually good for them. Muahaha eat all you want, but preferably outdoors, or on the kitchen floor with a black hand towel. They stain.

365: #014 Reverse Tie-Dye

2011-07-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

I realize that it's toxic, but wow, bleach can work some awesome miracles. I've used it to re-invent more than one article of clothing in my day and these shirts are no exception. Tie-dye can be really dreadful if done wrong, or really earthy and beautiful if done right- but what would it be if done backwards? I grabbed a couple of old Hanes long-sleeved tees I had kicking around in my pajamas-and-slogging-around-the-house drawer and decided to find out.

Sadly, I failed to take photos of the process, not even thinking I could put it on the blog until after it was done! Whoops. A quick recap- I prepared a half and half water-and-bleach solution in the bathroom sink, and then filled the bathtub partially with tepid water. I grabbed an old ball of yarn, folded my shirts and bound them up as I saw fit, gave them a dunk in the bleachy sink until they began to turn, and then immediately tossed them over into the tub for the rinse-and-reveal.

I should have left the black one soaking a little longer, I wanted a paler peach than this light pumpkin orange color. It still looks pretty cool, though!

The navy blue shirt turned out surprisingly pretty, and neither of these photos capture the colors quite right, ranging from indigo bluish-purple, all the way to a light raspberry red.

There you have it! Reverse tie-dye, and now I'm dying (no pun intended!) to do this to just about everything else in my wardrobe. Someone stop me!

365: #013 Button Necklace

2011-06-20T13:08:00.000-04:00

I recently became one of the sole proprietaries of an estate. Okay, sort of. It's a really long story, but part of that story is that I found myself with hundreds of antique buttons, all dusty and covered in decades of nicotine. They needed a good wash, and a good wash they got, before they were decanted into some old ball jars so I could ooh and aah over how pretty they were- see?

There were a few that I selected as favorites, keeping them separate for jewelry projects. The first of which was this necklace, made simply by putting three shank buttons and a little paper flower on a jump ring and adding it to an old chain. I love it!

Alright Already!

2011-06-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

I've taken up running, which I am not particularly good at, (run for fifteen seconds, walk for fifteen minutes...) but I seem to have found my magic bullet. When I'm running around town I feel like everyone's looking at me. Which I hate, 'cause I'm a bit chubby. So I've started driving a few blocks north to Oakwood Cemetery, which is as massive as it is old as it is wooded as it is full of wildlife and beautiful views. It's always quiet there (as the dead? Hah.) And though you'll sometimes pass one other jogger or someone driving through (especially on Sundays) nine times out of ten you're totally alone. And that's what I need. Alone with Pandora on my phone and my headphones in my ears and my Vibrams on my feet. In the early mornings it's still cool, and there's thick, cold dew in the grass and having chill feet cools the rest of you down fast...

It's a good way to be.

I've got to catch up on this blog, and I have a lot coming your way, some new crafts for Craft 365, (not all of them tutorials, since I've been a bit lax on that, but I'll try and give good descriptions where I can.) I have some recipes too, and some photo adventures, so stay tuned!

Still here.

2011-06-07T17:17:00.002-04:00

Just quiet, lately.

A New Library to Discover

2011-05-29T02:42:00.000-04:00

Ro and I went out to explore the other day, for the first time, just as this heat wave was starting. I had discovered by way of Google maps that the local library is only two-thirds of a mile north, so we decided to wander up there. What a remarkably gorgeous building. Built in the late 1800's, the whole place is a maze of delicate original tile, marble, iron, woodwork and stained glass (including an original Tiffany piece), a feast for the eyes to say the least.

A dumbwaiter! Amazing!

All throughout the stacks, the floors are made of a translucent material to allow light to filter through.
Here, you can see light coming up from underneath, and a beam below casting the shadow on the
underside of the floor.

Original floors, original shelves...

The entire building is "fireproof", using unique and modern construction techniques for the time.


To the left, the original Tiffany piece, which I totally did not get a very good photo of. The mix of the antique and the modern in this photo is as dreadful as it is funny.

Looking Back on Walking Out

2011-05-28T21:21:00.002-04:00

The cathedral was cool- thank god- for even though it was October, the black velvet gown I had chosen to wear was as stifling as it was tight. From where I was seated in the stone sanctuary, I could see everything. The old Queen of the East had just stepped down, breathtakingly beautiful in dusky purple damask and an airy white silk veil, deep brown hair done up in a knot. Taking her place, the new Queen stepped up, resplendent in ivory and gold, her blond curls tumbling for miles down her back. It was every bit the picture of medieval beauty, from the intricate crowns on their heads and the stone sanctuary of the cathedral, to the hand carved wooden thrones they sat on; complete with fanciful needlepoint cushions bearing the Kingdom’s heraldry. In that magical moment I remembered what I loved- or should I say, what Alijna van den Oostenbrugge loved- about the SCA.

The Black Velvet gown for coronation.

Ahem. “The Society for Creative Anachronism is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to researching and recreating the middle ages, the way it should have been.” (They throw that last part in there to let you know there’s no feudalism, no plagues, and no dying for the crown.) The SCA is not a bunch of Rennies. We’re reenactors. At least, that’s what we claim. But reenactors have high standards, hard rules, and a sharp eye for things that are out of place in a small stretch of time and place, such as the American Revolution or the Civil War. In the SCA we “reenact” some several cultures over a span of a thousand years (600 to 1600 AD, to be precise). At any point in time a Viking from the 600’s, a Celt from the 900’s, an Englishwoman from the 1500’s and a tribal bellydancer from yesterday could all be hamming it up around the same fire. Not to mention the majority of us are still running around in sneakers and sunglasses with our not-even-remotely-accurate tunics and longbelts. In short? It’s a god-damned mess.

I found my home there, in the SCA, after a yearlong fight with myself about wanting to be a LARPer. At the time, my ex boyfriend in Atlanta and all of his friends played in a fantasy medieval LARP, and it screamed for me to be involved. Costuming, acting, like free-form DnD? Sign a girl up! The only problem was, there wasn’t a local chapter. Anywhere. I found out about the SCA through some friends of my then boyfriend’s. They encouraged me to attend the Barony’s dance practice at a local college, and I was hooked at once.

After our first camping event, age 18.

I was just a dumb kid. Seventeen, clueless. I had just come off a stint of high school where I was the fat, greasy, poor kid. I did not like myself, and not many liked me. This statement is not intended to garner pity from you, dear reader, but simply to set you up for my next statement: in the SCA, I was pretty sure I was a goddess. Everyone adored me, gushed about how cute I was and what amazing garb I had for it being my first event and all. I knew how to sew? Amazing! I was making friends left and right (and up and down and back and forth and center and north by northwest and everywhere else.)

That was a ten years, two months ago.

I was involved with everything that was good and holy to my little nerdy heart. Sewing garb, renaissance dancing, camping, and alcohol. And in that order, too. I did stick my head in all over the place, though. Cooking, fencing, heavy weapons fighting, archery, helping a time or two with children’s activities… The whole mess was like a dream come true for me, to be honest. Running around in funny clothes and pretending to be someone else. (I’d spent the past five years sewing dresses out of sheets for my best friend and I so we could run around in the woods and pretend to be characters we’d read in books. This wasn’t much different.)

I went away, though. Is the thing. In 2005, after four years of hard love for this social circle, I moved to Arizona, where I knew no one in the local Barony, and was shaken up by how creepy and predatory everyone was. Had I never noticed it in my own group back home? Had I forgiven them as much by blissful ignorance? They say you can’t see the forest for the trees, but I think I wasn’t seeing the trees for the forest.

At my last event before moving away.

By way of the SCA I have met a lot of really horrible people. Manipulative sociopaths, rumored rapists, speculated pedophiles, people so socially awkward they have no boundaries, pathological liars, drama mongers and attention whores. (And somehow each and every one of them manages more clout than the dumb kid.) On top of that, I’m cursed to know a slew of folk who hold grudges, which in turn makes me continue to hold grudges, and the vicious, grudgey cycle goes on.

But please, do not for a moment let me scare you off the SCA. As with all subcultures, it is a sink for social deviants- a place where they are made to feel accepted and secure- but it’s my own responsibility to stay away from those I wish not to be associated with, or now, now that I’ve come home and tried re-integrating with my Barony, those I wish not to be associating with my daughter.

Me and Ro, age 3.

But I have met some amazing people, too. People so dedicated to their research in their crafts and arts that they turn out museum-quality pieces. People who cook a sumptuous and perfectly historically accurate feast. People who make their own beautiful armor in sweaty blacksmithing workshops, then study period ways of swordsmanship. I have met people who have hearts far too large for their own good. Who love and help and cherish each shining individual who comes their way, often whether they deserve it or not, (mea maxima culpa). I have met people who are excited to teach, who are excited that I came back sporting a daughter, who want her to come join the SCA, too, and learn, and grow. I have met people I consider sisters and best friends. I have met people that I look forward to. And that is the highest compliment of all.

But I am a coward, too. I don’t want to face the people I can’t stand, or worse still, I don’t want to face the people I can stand (would love to stand), but have disappointed too greatly to bear facing it. I have no idea who I am anymore, or what the SCA means to me. What I want it to mean to me. What purpose or role it has in my life. I have been back to several events since coming home from Arizona, and each one has been painful to say the most, awkward to say the least.

Ro and a friend, "making hay" at a camping event.

But it’s Memorial Day Weekend, and I know where my local SCA people are right now. Driving home through the farmcountry last night, I caught a deep whiff of woodsmoke and the sight of open, green fields in my headlights in the dark. And it tore at my heart and beat it up a little. I should be camping, right now. I should be with them, around a fire, wrapped in my cloak, leaning on a friend, laughing and passing a bottle of someone’s homemade cordial around and around. I should be hearing the stories I’ve heard a million times, singing songs I’ve sung a billion times. I should be at that event right now. It feels like home. But I went back to my flat instead, because it’s becoming a distant thing, a thing I know nothing about anymore. A thing that looks and tastes and feels and quacks like moving on. And for now, my sore heart is tucked into the top of my closet with the rest of my garb.

Reading: Update

2011-05-26T20:41:00.000-04:00

I bought this book in Arizona in 2008 when a good friend of mine insisted, (after I made him read Sharon Shinn's Mystic & Rider) that I needed to read it. I tried to read it. Twice. I never got past the second chapter, either time. Slow to start, maybe- or probably more to the point- slow to introduce female characters, which I am ridiculous about. I know, shame on me. But this time, I got through it, and as soon as Catelyn and Daenerys and Arya and Sansa were introduced, I was feeling much more into it. My copy has the "old cover" with Jon Snow and Ghost on it, and I fear now I'm going to have to go looking at used book stores when I go to buy A Clash of Kings because I have this thing about all my books matching. It's a true disease.

I'll probably go looking tomorrow. Or Saturday. Because I have to know what happens next. And that? Is a sign of a great book. (But I don't think HBO would have picked it up if it wasn't one. =D)

May 26th, A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
April 13th, Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire
February 8th, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood.
January 26th, Plot, Ansen Dibell.
January 24th, The Knot's Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions, Carley Roney.
January 22nd, Of Bees and Mist, Erick Setaiwan.
January 19th, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (read twice, back to back.)

Ro-isms, Age 4.5

2011-05-26T20:13:00.000-04:00

"In-string."
(Interesting.)

"Hostible."
(Hospital.)

"Ambliance."
(Ambulance.)

"A-fridge-raider."
(Refrigerator.)

"Scorbian."
(Scorpion.)

"Ma-triskas."
(Matryoshka.)

"Froat."
(Throat.)

"Mulan'd."
(Mulan.)

"Jasmin'd."
(Jasmine.)

"Oy-inj."
(Orange.)

"Meal."
(Oatmeal.)

"College."
(The school she plans to go to when she's 31.)

Hay Soup

2011-05-26T15:50:00.000-04:00

Every so often, a recipe really speaks to my inner Ritualist, my inner Pagan. Whether it's Cat Cora's Milk and Honey Soup, idea for Imbolc, or something more like Martha Stewart's gorgeous and timeless Yule Log cake, decorated with those genius meringue mushrooms, there's always a recipe out there waiting for me to discover, obsess, and subsequently design a party for.

Today while watching Richard Bangs' Adventures with a Purpose on the PBS sister station Create, I discovered something called "Hay Soup". At the Gasthof Rössli in Escholzmatt, Switzerland, Chef Stefan Weisner creates an organic version of this recipe that sounds mindblowing:

RB: What’s your most famous dish?....
SW: The hay soup.
RB: It’s the hay soup? Well, let’s go make some hay. Let’s go have some soup.
[VO:] He gathers everything himself, and leaves no stone unturned as he roots around the biosphere. His ingredients: ants, coal, stones, snow, hay, silver, gold, moss, ferns, peat, alpine roses, tree bark and...whiskey. His menu seems a demonic offering that lays somewhere between between absurdity and transcendence. The soup even has a hay nest for garnish.
RB: What an explosion of flavor…There are 49 different herbs that are in this hay soup and Stefan picks them personally.

Now I'm on a mission to create this soup, myself. 49 herbs? I can think of maybe 15 offhand! Not to mention it's traditionally served in a small bowl literally nestled in a nest of fresh, green hay. I can't afford to fly to Switzerland right now, much as I would love to.

What to Eat, What to Eat

2011-05-25T16:20:00.002-04:00

Okay, I admit it. I’m a label reader. An affliction my husband didn’t know what to do with when he first met me because he, at the time, ate without discrimination. It became an obsession when I got pregnant, as I systematically began eliminating things from my diet. Artificial sweeteners, dyes, excess sodium, refined flours and sugars, high-fructose corn syrup, nitrates, nitrites, monosodium glutamate, things I couldn’t pronounce. I wouldn’t wash my hair or my body with anything that had sodium laurel sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, dye, “fragrance”, and things that sounded like a lab technician would be confused by them. I was on a rampage to eat and use only things I recognized, only things Caroline (“Ma”) Ingalls could have gotten her hands on. (We’re choosing to gloss over the part where I subsisted on Ocean Water [see also HFCS & Blue 5] from Sonic for about a month or two…)

These days, anyway, it’s a lot less crazy with me. While I don’t like consuming any of the aforementioned, I still do. Soda often the worst culprit of all. I always swore I’d protect my daughter from foods that weren’t food, from edible science and the chemicals claiming to enrich our lives. I wanted honest food. Food that went into the ground (or the barn) by someone’s hand, was treated simply and kindly, and came back out by someone’s hand, to my plate. Easy, right?

No. Not easy at all. She gets lollipops from the doctor’s office, donuts and candies from well-meaning grandparents, offered sports drinks and soda which she happily consumes, ice creams that come in unnatural shades, the sugary peanut butter her father prefers, and bread that would be better off identified as cake.

It’s up to us as parents to find the happy medium. I have friends who have children who have never eaten anything I’ve yet mentioned and subsist solely on organic produce, local eggs and milk, and grass fed meats. I envy those kids. Their moms treat them well, and if I had someone cooking me all that stuff every day, I’d eat it, too. I consider myself blessed that my daughter loves fruit and vegetables, loves sushi, almond milk and, yeah, local eggs, too. It took her almost three years to even like meat, and she’s still a little iffy about it. My girl eats pretty well, I’m going to admit. And those nights when all she wants are French fries aren’t going to get me worried. It’ll be broccoli tomorrow.

MomTip: If your kids won’t fall for it, and all you can get them to eat is the macaroni and cheese from the blue box, check out Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook Deceptively Delicious, it’s filled with clever and sneaky ways to hide vegetables in foods your children already adore.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 9/23/2010. Yes, I own my content.

It's MYTFINE

2011-05-24T15:00:00.001-04:00

"I think it came from the fifties."

"Do we eat it...?"

"Um."

Free to a Good Home

2011-05-22T18:24:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Ali, and I am addicted to piles of free junk on the side of the road... I am. It's terrible. I have acquired so many of my belongings from curbside heaps, and today was noooo different. I was driving home from my mother's house and spotted this rad old black school desk at the edge of someone's lawn. I swung the car around faster than you can say abandoned Hot Dog Charlie's and snapped it up. Ro didn't mind having to share the back seat with it all the way home to Troy, and when I got here and got it upstairs (still unsure what I was going to do with it) it sat in the middle of the living room for a couple of hours before it dawned on me.

That's what I should do with that mystery corner in my kitchen.

This odd little corner sandwiched between my refrigerator on one wall and the stove on the other was always a little 'eh' - I had no idea what to do with it, none at all. I wanted some kind of little table or island or something to stick back here so I'd have somewhere to set my laptop while following recipes online and listening to music while I cook.

I nailed it! A new home for all my cookbooks, somewhere to sit and flip through food magazines, a spot for tea in the morning, or maybe a new nest for the cat to sleep in next to the side-heater in the winter? (Hence the little blanket crammed in there.)

We just need a little chair (sort of like that French one I got rid of in Mesa? Shoot.) Then I can sit and read by the window with a cup of tea!

The Life Recycled

2011-05-21T11:51:00.001-04:00

Overwhelming is probably the first word that comes to mind when you consider shifting your footprint from one of carbon consumption to something a little more gentle. It seems everywhere you turn these days, someone’s throwing the word ‘green’ around, and it can be a challenge to figure out where to even start. It’s easy enough to do when you take it one step at a time, and involving the kids can make the transition rewarding in so many ways.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and the first and easiest place is with those three R’s: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.

In our home, my daughter is really excited about the recyclables. From the moment she was old enough to walk to the recycling bin we encouraged her to carry plastic containers and bits of cardboard from the kitchen into the hallway where the container sat. By the time she could pronounce the complicated R-word, she was already a veteran of sorting trash from recyclable materials. Nowadays you don’t even have to ask.

To encourage your own kids to begin recycling, first find out what can or cannot be recycled in your location. If you’re in the capital district, County Waste offers single stream recycling, though there are differences depending on your county. To find out, visit County-Waste.com and click Recycling at the top of the page. Once you’re informed, you can make a poster together to hang above the recycling bin in your house. Draw pictures or glue magazine cut-outs to a sheet of paper to show what should and should not be tossed into the bin. Then even the youngest helpers can match the item to the pictures, or read the number on the bottom of plastics, and place them in the bin for recycling.

Let’s not forget the other two R’s, though, as reducing and reusing are just as important as recycling, if not more so. Recycling is better than sending your waste off to a landfill, but it’s important to remember that they require precious resources (such as water) to process all of those items.

Try to buy refills for things you buy frequently, such as cleaners, wipes, soaps and other products that come in a dispenser. It often cuts down not only on price, but also on the amount or type of packaging that gets thrown away. Several brands now in stores have made it a point to use less packaging in their standard items, too, from thinner boxes on frozen dinners to altogether boxless granola bars.

I’ve long made it a point of purchasing grocery items that come in glass bottles and jars instead of plastic. When the last bits have been used up and the container is empty, we soak the labels off of them (Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are great for scrubbing off the last of the adhesive, $7 for 4 at Target,) then wash them inside and out, and see that they get reused.

The glass bottles I use when making my own salad dressings and sauces, because there’s always something left over after every dinner I make. The jars, however, are the real joy. Jars can be used for anything, from temporary storage of home-made foods in the fridge to stashing buttons, push-pins, pens, crayons and just about anything else. Your own kids might enjoy forming their own jar collections. Have them wrangle their change, stones, marbles, Silly Bands or anything else small enough to get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner or lost between the couch cushions. I even use them to store sugar, chocolate chips, flax seeds and other pantry staples when their original packaging becomes compromised.

A few good ideas here and there are all it takes to encourage an eco-friendly mindset. Edging your family toward a greener lifestyle is healthier- not just for the planet, but for everyone!

Simple places to start:

Make a recycling cheat-sheet to help teach kids what can and cannot be recycled.
Don’t forget your reusable shopping bags when going to the store.
Buy items with reduced packaging and keep an eye out for refills instead of buying new.
Invest in reusable water bottles and coffee cups if you haven’t already.
Keep jars from products packaged in glass to store odds and ends around the house.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 9/2010. Yes, I own my content.

Craigsfriends

2011-05-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and trust the Universe when it comes to my social life. (But I thought that title was a bit long, don't you?)

The merits of Craigslist are many. So, so many. Used bikes, secondhand baby stuff, apartments you never would have heard of, jobs you never thought you had a chance at getting. But friends? Craigslist for friends? I think the answer might surprise you.

One day, while living in Arizona, in a fit of mild desperation over the fact that I didn't have friends whose interests overlapped in all the right places, I posted an ad to Craigslist that went a little something like: "I'm looking for other homeschooling moms. Who are also kind of nerds. Who are also Pagan. I'm kind of looking to start a whole nerdy pagan homeschool thing. Can you help me out?" I was really optimistic. I mean, there are roughly eight billion people populating the Phoenix Craigslist. How else would I be able to get rid of my IKEA stuff so fast?

But I only got one reply. It was Sarah. She was great. We got along famously. We met for coffee and playdates. Her little boy enjoyed my little girl, and it seemed like the start of something swell. Really swell. Until I found out I was moving back to New York. Pbbt. Thanks a lot, Universe.

About a year ago, after having been back in New York for one full year and realizing I'd grown out of most of the friends I'd made here before leaving, being a Mom now and knowing way too many people who just really, really don't like kids, I decided (in another one of those fits of mild desperation) to try the Craigslist tactic again. Except this time I wasn't so hopeful. Albany only has one hundred thousand people in it, give or take. Compare this to Phoenix's one and a half million and you have a recipe for sadness.

But again, I got one reply. I was starting to get the hint. The Universe was laughing right at me and saying, "Darlin', just ask and ye shall receive." This time I received Kelly, and she was great! We got along famously! We met for coffee! (Not so much playdates, as our kids are four years apart- as in, hers was newborn and mine wasn't.)

I was really starting to think I'd caught onto something. Like- could you imagine for every lost soul mom who's just moved to a new city and knows no one? While Craigslist is daunting, sometimes creepy, and not exactly a place where you can easily filter your results, I think it's something else, too. A true hub of a community, on a larger scale, and a place where, if you just trust it (and yourself, and the Universe,) you can make a friend or two.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 12/31/2011. Yes, I own my content.

What do you mean, April Showers?

2011-05-19T23:49:00.000-04:00

Try May Showers. It's positively pouring out there- thunder, lightning, the works- (and I couldn't decide which setting on my camera best captured it- so I used a few. Don't mind me.) I took these while neighbors were having a highly undignified Jerry Springer-esque shrieking breakup in the street. My god, do people have positively no self respect? Anyway, I'm trying not to let that sour my mood too very much. The rain is beautiful and sitting here listening to it is just one of the very many reasons I love New York in May.

365: #012 Scrapbooking Catchup

2011-05-18T14:40:00.000-04:00

This is a quick one- I finished up Ro's "Doctor" and "Princess" pages with some stickers and some lettering I was able to get my mitts on. The doctor pages talk mostly about her first well-baby visit and her vaccinations, the Aurora page talks about her insatiable obsession with the princess Aurora and all the pinky pinkness that comes with it. I apologize for the creepy Wicked Witch of the West baby doll thing going on in the images below. Ro happened to toss her under the bus just as I was setting the scrapbook down to take photos. Whoops!

365: #011 Little Deities

2011-05-18T14:32:00.001-04:00

In December of 2006 we held a dedication service for Ro in the back yard of her godfather's house. I didn't want to do a church baptism for her because we aren't religious, yet something was tugging at me to do some kind of something. I decided after much deliberation to dedicate her to the Goddess Eostre, who no one is really sure if she ever existed as a legitimate deity within Germanic cultures or not, but even if she didn't the idea of her is nice. She represents springtime, and morning, and soft weather, and flowers, and all things bright and pretty and gentle. I've had this little printed out picture of Thalia Took's drawing of Eostre for some time now. I never knew what I was going to do with it until I wound up with this lid from a Danskin box of ballet gear...

I'm not satisfied with the way it came out- the intention for it to be a little something of a light catcher, a little something of a shrine, a little something of a wreath, but now, a day after I've made it, I'm realizing what it really wants for is lots of flowers- those little satin rosettes won't do. It wants to be bursting with springtime goodness. This is a project which will have to be revisited.

The Organic Argument, Again

2011-05-18T12:46:00.001-04:00

~~I have a friend who~~- Scratch that, I have several friends who just don't get why Organic is better. And that's fine, most people don't really see the worth of spending all that money on something that tastes the same. Normally yeah, I agree, it tastes the same, the Organic oats are just as oaty as the Quaker stuff, the Organic sugar is just as sugary, it's basically all the same- flavor wise. But my argument for Organic dairy is ferocious.

It isn't just the lack of hormones floating around, giving girls early periods leading to breast cancer, or any other estrogen-related malady the press can come up with. (And, if you have a daughter, you might want to look into that.) It isn't just the lack of antibiotics from infected, red, raw and over-milked udders, (but yeah, that's kind of nasty, too, I admit. And having been a nursing mother, I can totally, and literally feel those cows' pain.)

You can taste it. I promise. You can practically taste the grass. The grass! I swear I'm not pulling your leg. And this was the thing I had to convince this one particular friend of. We were chatting online and I mentioned my new French press. I told him that if there's one thing I'm a snob about, it's Organic dairy. Especially for someone who actually enjoys a glass of milk with things like cookies, or a wad of butter slathered on freshly baked bread.

The way Organic dairy transforms your health is going to be one thing, of course, but if I promised you it would transform the way your food tastes, too- would you believe me? Making the Organic argument is a bit like coming out of the hippie-closet for most people who have to convince their friends and family that what they're doing is better for them. But when the difference can be tasted in that first perfectly creamy, fresh sip, that's proof, right?

I challenge you to think of the health of your daughters, I challenge you to think of your own health, but above all else, I challenge you to think of your tastebuds, your morning coffee, your kids' cereal. Next time you're at the grocery store, spend a little more on the Organic and see what it does for you. You might be surprised.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 1/26/2011. Yes, I own my content.

365: Crafty Update

2011-05-17T15:02:00.001-04:00

It's been 23 days since I started the 365 challenge and I've only done 10 projects. That's not bad for how much of a procrastinator I am, but really, it's not great. That means I have 13 projects to catch up on, so I really need to get my butt back in gear, and if you notice double or triple craft posts in a day, that's why. Really, I need to do this for my sanity and reclaim my office. The whole place has been so taken over by crafting, sewing and art supplies that there's no room to work. I've been doing all my working on the sofa in the bay window. It's like my "other" office. Only squishier. A sofa-office. A soffice.

So from my soffice I'm going to stare into my office-office and try to make a list of projects that clearly need to be taken care of in order to clear up some space. 'Cause I can see it from here, and folks, it is not pretty.

Doll Quilt out of Old Pillow.
American Girls Doll Clothes.
Molly's Body.
Herringbone Purses.
Straw Purse Lining.
Altered Books.
Pajama Bottoms (and Tops?) for Ro.
Sundresses for Ro.
Take in Green Dress for Christina.
Snow Queen Doll.
Etc. (Who knows what I'll unearth!)

Okay, 13 projects, GO!

Homeschooling, A Misnomer

2011-05-17T12:24:00.003-04:00

Yes, we homeschool, but I'm starting to wonder why on earth they call it that. Sure, we're working on workbooks at the kitchen table, but I'm fairly convinced that my four-year-old daughter is doing most of her learning elsewhere, out there, in the community.

As evidenced by the photo at left, during the summer months she learned that blackberries and raspberries grow on bushes and yes, yes you CAN eat them! Living next to the woods is so cool.

At the laundromat she learns that four quarters equal a dollar, and that half of six is three and that's how many loads worth of detergent you need for the smaller washers, not the larger ones. She also learns that if she throws her bouncy ball just right at the dryer doors, she forms a parabola that launches the ball back over her head- often at me, while I'm trying to fold the clothing.
At the coffee shop she learns that venti is Italian for twenty, because that's how many ounces are in that size cup. She learns about how coffee grows, and what Fair Trade means.

At the library she gets to attend free children's programs, where a really nice lady plays the guitar, leading them in songs, reading them books, and doing crafts with them. She's learned about apples and leaves, gingerbread houses and all the different colors that people come in. She's also learned how to run around in circles around the obelisk out front and not land on her face. Please.

At Target, she learns that one dollar buys one thing from the Dollar Spot. You'd think this was obvious, but it's taken some getting used to for the little one who thinks she needs both the princess markers and the Hello Kitty water bottle. She also learns that if she saves three of her dollars, she can walk to a different part of the store and buy something that costs more than a dollar. A novel idea for her.

Don't worry, I see the inherent downward slope, here. She's not going to learn Advanced Trig from the mailman, or American Politics from the lady at the grocery store (but maybe from C-Span!) There's a point where this method of unschooling stops working. But for now, I'm content to sit back and let her soak it all up. The schooling doesn't have to stay at home. In fact, it never does.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 1/21/2011. Yes, I own my content.

Sometimes, Candy.

2011-05-16T16:02:00.000-04:00

Zack and I sat down to watch Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill last night, and in lieu of having popcorn or candy or cracker jacks any other fun and happy theater-type munchies, I decided to go into my pantry and put to good use a few ingredients I just happened to have laying around after Easter and my Nana's cleaning out of her baking goods. Because sometimes, you just need candy.

Oh my goodness, isn't it gorgeous? A chewy layer of marshmallow caramel goo, enveloping slightly salty peanuts, slathered in dark chocolate and, uh, rainbow nonpareils - of course!

Who wouldn't want a jar of this stuff on their shelf? YUM. The flavor is somewhere between buttery popcorny chocolatey Poppycock, and caramelly peanut brittle. Yum. yum. yum.

Sometimes Candy

Ingredients:

1 10.5 oz Bag Marshmallows
1/2 Stick Salted Butter
10-15 Chewy Caramels (unwrapped)
1+ Cups of Shelled Peanuts
14oz Dark Chocolate
Nonpareils (or other happy sprinkles)

Special Equipment:

Parchment Paper or Silpat

Directions:

Over med-low heat, melt together the marshmallows, butter and caramels until well combined and smooth enough. Spread out on parchment or silpat in a vaguely rectangular shape, making sure it's about 1/3" thick. I used a rolling pin on mine, as it's buttery enough to not stick to the rolling pin, and made sure it was evenly flat all the way across.

Melt chocolate in a microwave, or in a double boiler. Spoon out over the marshmallow mixture and spread evenly to coat. Sprinkle happy nonpareils on top!! Let cool completely before cutting into bite-sized bits with a large knife.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Scones

2011-05-16T12:00:00.001-04:00

I have been asked for the recipe for the scones Ro and I made the day of the Royal Wedding. How silly of me to have not posted it in the first place! While not technically scones, as this recipe uses eggs and is morelike a cake in that respect, they are still tender, and tasty, and practically exploding with blueberries.

You'll need:
2C Flour
3T Sugar
Dash Salt
2.5t Baking Powder
1/4C Milk
3/4C Butter
2 Eggs
1C Blueberries
For the glaze:
1C Confectioner's Sugar
The Zest of 2 Clementines
Clementine Juice

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Toss in blueberries and coat with flour mixture to suspend. Beat together milk, butter, and eggs in a small bowl, then stir into dry ingredients until well combined.

Bake in a 350° oven for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I baked mine on a pizza stone, and it took them an hour- but I might also be dealing with antiquated technology. Oven from the 1950's!)

Remove from oven, and slice into eighths. Let cool.

To make the glaze, combine confectioners sugar and zest in a small bowl. With a fork, whisk in enough clementine juice to make runny. Drizzle over cooled scones and let sit until set.

Enjoy with a cup of black tea and a wedding on the side!

Learning to Love the CSA Box

2011-05-16T09:00:00.001-04:00

In nature, there are careful balances struck everywhere you look. Between worker bees and their queen, between insects and the rain forest, between trees and the oxygen we breathe. More likely to observe the balance between our schedules and smart phones are we, that it’s easy to forget that we are not apart from that nature, we are a part of it. As we dash into the big-box grocery store we forget that we are the variable that keeps the small farmer producing their precious loads of goods, so fleeting between the first harvest of early spring peas and asparagus, and the late season apples and squashes.

This delicate balance is taking place all around us. Our community farmers are relying on co-ops, farmer’s markets, and their own farm stands to sell their goods. But there is another way they’re branching out. It’s called Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s the most interesting and creative way to give even those in the depths of the concrete jungle a taste of the local countryside.

Started in the 1960’s in Europe and Asia, CSA groups were formed to assuage concerns about food safety and agricultural land management. Since then they have taken off worldwide, offering vegetable boxes, dairy selections, cuts of meat, fresh flowers and more from local producers, available either for pick-up, or home delivery, depending on the farm in question.

Half of the fun of CSA boxes is that they’re a bit of a gamble. You pay the annual dues to the farm, and they supply you with whatever is ripe and in season, once a week. It’s something of a veggie roulette. If there are tomatoes ripe this week, you get tomatoes. If late blight takes out the entire tomato crop, you get no tomatoes this year at all. Nothing can possibly be set in stone, everything is subject to the influence of nature’s mercurial ways.

Committing to a CSA is no small project. You must be willing to remain on your toes, since you never know what you’re going to have on your hands. A friend of mine last year spent the better part of a week churning out huge batches of delicious red sauce because her CSA box was overflowing with juicy tomatoes that she simply couldn’t keep up with. Her freezer was full, and I bet she’s still working her way through it all! CSA cooking requires dedication to grocery runs, a stocked pantry, and a high degree of creativity, above all.

If you’re up to the challenge of on-your-feet cooking, the Christmas-like excitement of finding out what’s in the box, and the warm fuzzies you get from knowing you’re helping sustain your community growers and feed your family the very best, most fresh, and most local the area has to offer, then buying into a CSA is for you. And this summer when you’re at the grocery store? Skip the produce isle. It doesn’t have anything you need, anyway.

Visit LocalHarvest.Org to find out where your local CSA opportunities are, and join the movement.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 3/2011. Yes, I own my content.

Progress in the Garden

2011-05-15T15:00:00.001-04:00

Everyone remember our herb garden? Well I think for being stuck on a windowsill, it's doing pretty well! The basil and cilantro are fluffy and eager, the zinnias shot up like bats out of hell- even the catnip is creeping along, albiet slowly. It's just this silly-ass oregano that doesn't seem to want to go anywhere...

(The oregano is there in the middle. What the heck, oregano?)

Perfect Light

2011-05-15T12:00:00.001-04:00

Omnivore, Herbivore, Locavore

2011-05-15T09:00:00.005-04:00

There was a long time where I had heard the term locavore, but truly had no measure of what it meant. Of course I fully grasped the concept, but to be immersed in that lifestyle was not something I saw myself experiencing any time soon. My husband's really not one for the outdoors, definitely doesn't like to get his hands dirty. I like to garden, really I do, but my entire harvest, summer of '09, was wiped out by late blight.

I had the opportunity about a year ago to visit some friends of mine in Vermont who are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the greenest folks I know. Really good, old fashioned, salt of the earth kind of people. They live right in the heart of Montpelier, shop at the local co-op, can and brew and have pantries stocked with pickles, jams and mead for the winter.

I was there among ten other friends, all of us taking up space in their old Victorian townhouse, cooking and sharing meals together. One particular afternoon I was invited to come along and ride over to their community garden plot to dig up some things for dinner.

I know what you're thinking, in what modern world are we living that we have to dig up our own dinner? The answer is this one. In the still coolness of the setting sun we trudged through the tangle of rented plots, tomato vines commingling with the blackberries from the next plot over, zucchini canoodling someone else's prized acorn squash. In the seemingly vast field of plants we finally tracked down their plot, and three of us on our hands and knees turned up fistfuls of soil, hunting for the prizes underneath.

I laughed as they handed me potato after potato, which I stacked in my arms (see photo) like newborn babies needing loving warmth. I mean- yes, I hear you, they were only potatoes, but they were our potatoes. Our friends had grown them, tended them lovingly, and now they were unearthing them to share with us. There was such honesty in this work, there was joy as we scrubbed off a single, fat, new carrot under the community tap and then each had a bite. The sweetness on our tongues was the same in our hearts.

Locavorism is a growing trend, as farmer's markets and co-ops gain popularity, becoming trendier and hotter with every passing moment. But it's a trend I can stand to live with, if it turns people's attentions inward and keeps us looking closer to home. Supporting local growers, even being local growers ourselves, enriches our communities and our ties to the land we live on. It's an important lesson for children to learn, too. Where does our food come from?

With any luck, your answer will be 'Here'.

To read more about living life as a Locavore,
check out Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 10/14/2010. Yes, I own my content.

Fiddleheads

2011-05-14T18:39:00.001-04:00

I stopped to our local Hannaford today to grab a ton of produce because our pantry and fridge was looking woefully dairy/starch/meat heavy. I grabbed one thing on a whim that I'd been planning to try for some time now. Fiddleheads! The other day SouleMama mentioned on Twitter that her daughter had asked to have fiddleheads tossed with pasta for dinner, so I decided to do just that.

Oh. My. Word. Sauteed until gorgeous in shallots and brown butter with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, then tossed with some whole wheat rotini, these things are akin to crack. I have not tasted anything this good in a long, long time.

I ate this steaming-warm bowl of goodness sitting by the open window listening to (and smelling) the rain fall. I love May.

Toe Feet Shoe Shoes

2011-05-14T18:21:00.001-04:00

It is absolutely not a secret that I have lusted over a pair of Vibram FiveFingers for a couple of years now, but it's been a long, long time since a pair of "nice" shoes have been a practical expense (hellooooo Target clearance racks) and uh, never, since a pair of $100 shoes have been an expense worth consideration.

I saw my first pair in real life when I went to Arizona last March for Ian and Christine's wedding and saw their acquaintance Taylor wearing a pair. I got so excited. Then my friend Darroch got a pair when he went paleo (and started running in them!) THEN I saw someone wearing them at a friend's birthday party! I couldn't take it anymore.

I always wanted a pair of Sprints in their Slate/Lichen color, as well as a pair of Performas in Violet and a pair of Performa Janes in Cerise and and and and... you can see where this is going. But the ones I really wanted the most were the SmartWools, in Champagne. They discontinued the Performas and they discontinued the SmartWools, but when I received my final paycheck from the magazine, I went looking around online- just in case.

And I found them!! (THANK YOU, TRAVELCOUNTRY.COM!) 41% off! Eeee!

Yep, they are flippin' awesome, everything I thought they'd be and more. Everyone who has seen me with them on, shakes their head and says, "I could never wear those. Even toe socks drive me nuts." And you know what, toe socks drive me nuts, too- these are totally different. And amazing. Next up? "barefoot" jogging. Bring it on, baby.

New Kid on the Block

2011-05-11T23:36:00.000-04:00

In the past three weeks, my life has been in high upheaval. The reason for this being the long awaited and much blessed event of finally moving into my own place. If this seems to you like something every adult should do, you're probably right. The past two years have been a finance-stabling, get-back-on-our-own-two-feet type sojourn hosted by my mother. Needless to say, it's nice to be out on my own. (Again.)

The move has taken us to the heart of South Troy, right here in Little Italy where "Community" has totally become a buzzword for me. I have been gobbling up every new experience, every nook and cranny and corner "shady-mart" as my husband and I like to refer to them, with their ubiquitous opaque black plastic bags. We haven't much gone exploring yet, as our priorities are generally still revolving around unpacking and catching up with work. But there have been a few moments that encapsulated that small, young family living in the inner city feeling for me.

Last week we walked up to DeFazio's pizza, this itty bitty woodfire family operation churning out the most glorious pies this side of Naples, I'm sure of it. The place, which only has five tables, was packed full. We'd planned to sit down, but clearly barring that, we were left with takeout. It was one of those recent spring-warm and gently breezy evenings, and my daughter and I stepped outside to wait for our pizza to bake while my husband scooted across the street to hit the ATM.

We sat down together on the stoop of the row house next door, (which the guy who lived there had just been inside DeFazio's, picking up his own pie, and awkwardky crossed paths with us as we were usurping his stoop. He gave us a big smile and said we were welcome to have a seat on his steps, and to have a great night.) I smiled, my daughter skipped up and down the stairs, golden in the light of the sunset. I grinned to myself as a few indie kids walked in with a few bottles of wine to meet their already seated friends. People went in empty handed but eager, came out with fragrant, gorgeous pizzas, went away happy. Eventually, my husband was among them. We walked home together, the block and a half, hand-in-pizza-hand.

My community is falling together for me in shards of discovery, like a puzzle. A coop here, a playground there, and right here, a pizza place, where the guy behind the counter treats you like family. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Originally written for Kids Fun Plaza magazine on 4/15/2011. Yes, I own my content.

365: #010 Hair Flair

2011-05-11T18:54:00.000-04:00

Yikes, sorry for the radio silence around these parts. I think I burned out so hard on scrapbooking I haven't even breathed in the direction of the blog OR crafting. Today, though, I realized that the crafting supplies had begun to creep out of my office and were infiltrating the living room- not the least reason for which being that Ro found my decorative-edge scissors and decided to make decorative-edge confetti out of her drawing paper. Guess what my carpet is covered in, now? A decorative-edged mess. Guess who gets to spend the next hour tangoing with her Dyson? This gal.

Anyway, catching up on too many skipped days of craftiness, I decided to grab up a package of cloth scrapbooking embellishment flowers I had picked up on my last excursion to Michael's (please, please stop me next time I try and go in there,) and make some hair flair for Ro and I.

Easy enough, right? A package of clearance flowers, a headband, a bobby pin...

I was thrilled to see they were backed in felt- handy! Ro, of course, asked me about thirteen times if I was giving her the pink one. Lady, if you think for one second I'm putting anything pink in MY hair, you've gotta be kidding me.

I grabbed a spool of vintage lime green thread because it's lime green and vintage- (right answer!)

For Ro, I was doing a headband, so I started on hers first. Please don't mind the bad manicure (what manicure?) I haven't had the chance to re-do my nails since the concert. Like the color? It's Essie in Dive Bar. Reminds me of my good pal Ian. Anyway, I digress. 4-ply thread, away we go.

(Repeat twenty times.)

Seriously, that was maybe five minutes of work. LOOK HOW CUTE MY KID IS. (Disregard milk and peanut butter on her face, thanks.)

I decided to do a bobby pin for myself so I could accessorize my bun when I do weddings or whatever. I was going to use a purple bobby pin, but found a white one last minute and thought it the better choice.

Once sewn on, I added a healthy dollop of superglue, because I break everything I touch.

CUTE RIGHT? Now I just need an excuse to wear it.

Leaving the Magazine

2011-05-08T12:00:00.002-04:00

Some of you might have noticed that all of the sudden one day, I no longer had this badge on my left hand gadget bar, and I was no longer boasting that I was writing three columns for this magazine. It's about the longest and craziest story I could ever hope to regale a body with, (you know the phrase "you can't make this stuff up"? Well you can't. I promise.) For right now I can let you garner the superficial issues from the blogs of two of my coworkers- an apology from Sandra, and a few rules of thumb from Christina- but the rest of the story- the rest of the dark and twisty story- is going to have to wait.

The purposes of me writing this blog post, other than to confirm that I am, in fact, no longer a contractor for Kids Fun Plaza magazine, is to explain why, in the following weeks, you'll see an awful lot of re-posts of things I have written, both for the Kids Fun Plaza blog, and for the magazine. As a contractor who never signed any agreements at all whatsoever with the magazine's publisher, I still have the legal right to use the content anywhere I choose, as it is still technically mine (I was paid by the magazine for the right to use it, not to own it.) I happen to choose to use it here.

I'm proud of my writing, and hope that my readers will enjoy getting to see it here, on my own turf. I know I will.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T10:00:00.003-04:00

(Ro and I, 2010. Mom and I, 1984. Nana and Mom, 1968.)

I want to be a part of it

2011-05-08T01:11:00.001-04:00

Next time, New York. Next time I will visit you instead of Jersey. I promise.

365: #009 Scrapbooking Catchup

2011-05-07T17:53:00.002-04:00

Here they are, the 18 pages that I busted out this morning in a fit of being fed up with having so much scrapbooking tidbits floating around. I finally went out the other evening and got some photos printed to finish up the pages that had been half-finished for over two years, and started (and completed) scads of new ones. I know I'm not exactly a scrapbooking prodigy, but I guess the idea isn't in the design, for me. I just like having something colorful and interesting to look at- that's the truth.

A Moment of Peace

2011-05-07T17:09:00.001-04:00

I just finished a 6-hour scrapbooking bender, (did 18 pages!) and still have to photograph them for 365. But for now I'd like to leave you with a few photos of quiet- a little miss Beanshine who I snuck in on while she was napping yesterday. The noon-time light managed to find its way through her window from the narrow alley, a rarity.

She'd pulled the fitted sheet off of her mattress and wrapped her legs up in it. It was true comedy.

365: Guest Blog - Wipes Cover

2011-05-06T14:28:00.001-04:00

I just got back from New Jersey where I had the chance to see Rammstein and Combichrist on stage (the truth comes out for those of you not in the know, I'm an alternative mama, who listens to German industrial metal and terror EBM and every other sort of unsavory angry 'gothic' music you can throw my way.) Having not myself crafted, I am happy to give you a guest post from another alternative mama I know who listens to the very same sort of tunes- Irene, from The Crafting Hobbit!

Check out her wipes cover project over at her blog, and I'll be back tomorrow with about as much scrapbooking as you can shake a stick at.

365: #008 Scrapbooking Catchup

2011-05-03T12:00:00.003-04:00

Things have been crazy around here and I've been a bit lax the past few days, but I used the time to organize my scrapbooking stuff and knock out a few pages that have been waiting to be made. Several of them are awaiting photographs and/or lettering and/or stickers, but I got all the 'bilia glued down, and that's worth something. I have five pages completed, and many more that need completing. I need to get to a print kiosk soon to get some photos printed out- and back to Michael's or Hobby Lobby for some lettering and decorative stickers.

Well, you have to start somewhere.

Okay, genuinely, I used to be a lot better a laying out a page, I have no idea where my scrapbooking-fu went. This page is, as you can see, about Ro's obsession with the Princess Aurora. It needs stickers or something. It looks terrible.

These two pages are meant to be a spread and are about our three years of travels back and forth between Arizona and New York. Both pages are awaiting snapshots of Ro in airports, on planes, and in the hotel room in Cleveland during our ill-fated layover.

This page is waiting for both lettering and photos of Ro and I at the election party, and Ro watching the inauguration. It (obviously) is about Obama's election and inauguration, which Ro was right along beside me for, every bit of it.

Last page worked on was this one about Ro's trips to the doctor's, her first post-newborn "well baby" check-up, and her first vaccines, including the bandage they put on her first shots. There's blood on the bandage, still. Is that archival quality? This too is waiting for the photo of her with the bandages on her legs.

365: #006 & #007 The Gnome Pond & Fairy Boat

2011-05-01T12:00:00.003-04:00

The other day Ro said, "I have to clear a spot on the seasons table so the fairies can have a pond." Well, that wouldn't do at all. An invisible pond, what kind of silliness is that? I knew exactly what my next project had to be! That gnome house needed a pond, gosh darnit, and what good was a pond without a rad little boat for the fairies to go sailing? No good at all! This task at hand, I set to work.

How cute is too cute?

I started by gluing a sheet of iridescent blue scrapbooking stock to some heavy card (the cover from a different pad of scrapbooking paper I happened to have,) and cutting out an irregular "pond" shape.

Then, I glued down a popsicle stick dock.

I thought the edges seemed a little clean so I grabbed an old jar full of (what I believe to be) graphite chunks ('cause if they're not that, it's gray pyrite, and I don't think that exists.) Mom and I found tons of these along the train tracks behind her house and I hadn't found a use for them yet.

I glued them in place using a tube of tile adhesive I had in my tool box.

Dabbed some brown paint around the outside to make it look a little dirtier...

Drew in some "seaweed"...

And of course, what's the rule? IF fairies, THEN glitter!

The boat is the lid of a paperboard jewelry box, which I used some very cute scrapbooking paper to line it with.

Cut some popsicle sticks to make bench seats and to glue onto the outside, also.

Every good boat needs a sail, I grabbed an old cheap organza "favor bag" and snipped out a triangle, and made a mast out of a shard of popsicle stick.

I laid it down on a piece of waxed paper (a scrap from a palette pad,) and slathered it in glitter glue- THEN topped that in extra glitter. What's the rule of thumb again? If fairies...

Glued it in place, added some "rigging" with the leftover ribbons from the bag, then let it dry overnight before peeling it off the paper, trimming off the excess glue and...

Setting sail!

How we Spent our Day

2011-04-29T18:52:00.003-04:00

It was a day of housekeeping mixed with bouts of being glued to the TV- Ro decided what her appropriately "princess" outfit would be, (much to my chagrin,) I fell in love with those trees inside Westminster, we made blueberry scones with clementine glaze, designed what kind of a fabulous hat we'd care to wear to a royal wedding, and of course, following along with the ceremony script as it happened. Research, of course!

365: #005 My Summer Purse

2011-04-29T12:00:00.006-04:00

I love this stupid tote bag. I bought it at Walmart in 2008 because my purse wasn't large enough for diapers and a change of clothes for Ro on the plane during a New York visit. I've been using it ever since, which is a lot of mileage for a Walmart find! But I love the unexpected clash of yellows and greens in it, perfect for spring and summer. But of course, as with most cheap things, it was cheaply made, and the lining, a horrendously thin nylon, eventually began to fall apart. I tore it out with the intention of using it as a pattern to make a new lining with- and then took a year to get around to it! Inspired by a Petunia Picklebottom bag belonging to Irene from The Crafting Hobbit, I decided to embroider one small section of the graphic print, and then finally, finally got around to getting that darn lining put inside- just in time for the warm weather to hit!

It turned out to be more work than I thought it would!

I asked Ro to help me with the "before" - it had been wadded up in my sewing basket for months, so it's a bit wrinkly.

First part of the embroidery- Peace Fleece in Chickie Masla.

The second part- some yellow crewel wool that I dyed with indigo last year over at a friend's house to turn out this pretty deep sea-glass color.

Perfect!

Time to cut the lining for the main compartment and three pockets... I chose this obnoxious green stripe to echo the designs from the exterior canvas.

Sew 'em up...

...and box the corners, of course!

Realizing I didn't have quite enough obnoxious green stripe to do the inside zipper pocket, too- I grabbed some of this lime green IKEA hippo fabric from my stash.

Zipper and pocket set in- totally NOT my proudest zipper ever- but my zipper foot was completely missing.

Take a break to make an impromptu necklace for your kid out of the beads and floss you don't plan to use after all...

Pin the lining in...

Queue up all that Glee you missed...

HANDSEW, GO.

Two hours later, that wasn't so hard, was it? Purse content swap time!

Don't forget the matching wallet!

365: #004 Knitting Fail

2011-04-28T12:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I tried to start my shrug tonight. Tried, being the operative. It's a free Lion Brand pattern but I just took the measurements and ran with it- different weight yarn, different sized needles. But dude, it did not work very well, and I lost my patience very, very quickly with that laceweight yarn I was working with. I'm not sure what I need to do. Smaller needles, probably- my bamboo ones weren't smooth enough, unbelievably, and the aluminum ones were comedically too large, and totally unweildy, producing a tangled mess instead of a row of stitches.

Ugh.

I actually sharpened my bamboos, because they were so blunt I couldn't grab a stitch with them- didn't really help.

I have entirely too much of all of this white slubby laceweight and I want SO BAD to make a really diaphanous shrug with it, but I think I need some properly thin needles- maybe even circs, otherwise I'm totally lost.

Nope. It just wasn't doing. Oh well. Even if I didn't make anything today, I learned something. Buy new needles.

Come sit and read.

2011-04-28T09:08:00.002-04:00

Violet! You're turning violet, Violet.

2011-04-27T17:09:00.001-04:00

For Chris.

365: #003 Windowsill Herb Garden

2011-04-27T12:00:00.056-04:00

While not technically a craft, I've owed Ro this windowsill herb garden for a few days now, since I got her all those nice seeds for Easter. However, because it involved some innovative turning of recyclables into planters, I'm letting it through as a craft- especially because I have a meeting AND a date with my husband tonight and won't have much time for craftiness.

So, we live in the city now. The city-city, so for us, windowsill gardens and window boxes are the way to go- kind of the only way to go.

So I bought DIRT.
(Doesn't that sound absurd? Buying dirt?)

I dug through the recyclables, grabbed a huge can from water chestnuts, two bottoms from quarts of strawberries, and a little tub from shredded Parmesan cheese.

SEEDS!

I invented us a "watering can" by stabbing some holes in the cap of a French lemonade bottle.

I grabbed the dirt, and the filter from the coffee pot, which still had moist grounds in it from Easter. Perfect! Ro diligently filled the containers with dirt, then seeds, then sprinkled coffee on top.

I lined the two strawberry containers with paper towel half-sheets, just to keep the soil from sliding out the holes around the bottom.

Everything was placed on our sunny windowsills in the kitchen- the catnip (potted in Parm!) wound up right here, next to Loki's blanket. She'll really love that.

Signs of Spring

2011-04-26T16:47:00.001-04:00

Took Ro for a walk today over to the playground across the street from the firehouse. We stopped at the bodega on the corner for some drinks. The trees are blooming, and it was hot AND humid! Did we skip May altogether?

Down and out!

Stop to peer into the Potenskill on its way out of the city and to the Hudson.

365: #002 Dish Rack Mat

2011-04-26T12:00:00.043-04:00

Practicality reigned supreme today in Crafty stadium. You see, I have a stainless steel dish rack, and no dishwasher. I do a lot of dishes by hand, often in waves as I wait for one batch to dry before it can be put away. I didn't purchase the plastic pan that goes underneath and allows the runoff to go back into the sink. I'm not really against them, I mean- I always grew up with one- it's just that I'm really trying to cut the amount of Microban infused plastics out of my life, and I had seen Amanda Blake Soule over at SouleMama stitching up little mats to go underneath hers, so I thought- great idea! Of course, I never got around to it, and since we moved in a month ago, I've just been using a doubled-up dish towel underneath.

When moving out of our last place and we wound up with all that stuff from my mom's neighbors- among all of it was a huge box of vintage fabrics, about as kitch as they come. So I grabbed some of those and a roll of cotton batting, and got to work.

I sprawled out on the kitchen floor and measured a rectangle of About The Right Size™.

Ah, but surely I hadn't forgotten that my sewing machine was broken?

Refusing to believe that a bent needle was my problem, I busted out Nana's machine instead.

Oh no.

As a last resort, even though I was sure- SURE- that the internet was wrong, I swapped my machine's needle for Nana's machine's needle. JUST in case it was bent.

Oh are you @#$%& kidding me?

AND SO I SEWED!

I made two so that they could be swapped out in case it needs washing.

Ah, that kitchy 60's peach floral is fabulously wrong and therefore oh so right. I love it!

365: #001 Fairies

2011-04-25T12:42:00.003-04:00

I worked on these for a total of 3 hours last night, starting around 9 and ending around 12. Shoot, is this going to be the usual timetable for Craft-A-Day? I hope not, 'cause then I'll never do dishes. These fairies were a project I've been aiming to do for a while and they're not great- okay the one is pretty great, the other three didn't go so well. All will be explained. Without farther adieu, I give you...

Leaf, Cupcake, Grapely, and Frost. (All named by Ro, of course.)

Let's start at the beginning...

As you can see, the situation with my desk being a mess is... erm. Really a problem. I'm want for storage in here and it's showing.

From Michael's I had picked up two packets of peg "girls" and a package of clearanced butterflies, with the intentions of snipping their wings off and gluing them to the girls to make fairy wings. It was kind of a problem that one of the butterflies only had one wing. I wasn't sure what to do about that.

I decided on a color scheme for each fairy, jotted it down on my palette and mixed up a pastel 'skin tone' for each one, then gave them two coats.

When I started removing the butterflies from the card, I noticed they were on clips- hmm! Going to have to find a use for those in the future.

I painted the wings from the back so I wouldn't ruin the glitter on the front too much.

Buuut they still needed more glitter.

More, more more!

Once the skin tones were dry, I sketched on the basic outline of what I wanted, then I started painting. After the paint was dry, I added details with Prismacolor pencils, or Sharpies (for those whom I had accidentally used glossy paint on. Whoops.) Because of this, Leaf turned out the best. She was entirely matte and had a great surface for sketching her little leaf skirt and vines on her vest. Everyone else? Eh.

Then I snipped off the wings and super-glued those suckers to their backs. I wound up just snipping the purple wing in half and giving Grapely mini-wings.

Drying!

Now what to do with all these creepy dis-winged butterfly body clips?

I set them all up in the gnome house for Ro to find in the morning...

And find them she did!

Introducing the 365 Craft-A-Day Challenge

2011-04-24T16:08:00.001-04:00

Before the family came yesterday, I found myself standing in my office in utter dismay, surrounded by more craft and sewing supplies than I really care to admit to having, wondering how I could make them look neat and tidy for company coming.

The sad truth was- I couldn't. I can't. There's just too much and I have nowhere to put any of it. How did I wind up with so much stuff for making and yet hadn't MADE anything with it? I have a few legitimate reasons- my stuff was in storage for 2 years, I worked at JoAnn's where I just acquired acquired acquired things- things I still have eleven years later.

I definitely knew it was time to do something, so I'm issuing myself a challenge. 365 Craft-A-Day.

Starting tonight, I will be making one craft a day (probably in the evenings after Ro goes to bed, unless it's a project I can do with her,) and posting it the next day. I will try and remember do take photos step-by-step, and hopefully really get back into a creative groove, and clean up some of this much-needed space in my office.

So stay tuned, dear reader, 'cause whether it's pages in my scrapbook, jewelry, doll clothes, pot holders, or anything else I can scrape out of my huge collection of supplies, I'll be posting it here, and I'll be glad to have you along for the journey. =)

Happy Eostre!

2011-04-24T15:04:00.001-04:00

Sick Kid

2011-04-22T21:00:00.001-04:00

Up late, on the sofa, watching Lilo & Stitch.

Bunny-Butt Bunting, Just in the Nick of Time

2011-04-21T20:18:00.001-04:00

I was Stumbling the other day, and discovered a new blog which, no joke, had me sucked in for days, reading posts all the way back to 2008. Patty Schaffer over at Capture the Details has been making these insanely adorable bunny-butt buntings, and I knew I just had to throw one together to drape across the mantle for Easter dinner this weekend. For those not particularly craft-inclined but just love the heck out of these anyway, she offers hers for sale in her Etsy shop (which is full of lots of other good things, too! Don't you just have to have these trees? I do, I do!)

I'd like to welcome Capture the Details to my blogroll. Totally worth checking at least once a week! (At long last! I know what to do with all that scrapbooking paper I don't appear to be using!)

Anyway! Here is how mine turned out- Ro helped me with it this morning (she was on tail-attachment duty.) Mine are larger and less sweetly chubby than Patty's, and I wound up adding carrots because I spaced the bunnies way too far apart! I should have spent the morning studying bunny's rear-ends...

On second thought...

(Ro took this one- 4-year-old's-eye-view!)

The Gnome House at Play

2011-04-21T12:30:00.001-04:00

Just a Quick One 'Cause I Can't Sleep

2011-04-21T02:40:00.001-04:00

After not being "active" on Twitter for what feels like a hundred years, I just opened it up and noticed that my new coworker at KFP, Kiki Lightbourne, threw out this awesome tweet while we were handing out totebags together at the Kids Fun Summer Expo last Saturday:

"Don't know how I forgot to tell you all that I met and got to stuff tote bags with one of my fave mommy bloggers! If you haven't checked out The Craning Gap blog, you def should! Check out all of our @KidsFunPlaza mommy blogs!!"

Right on, Kiki! You're great.

*Photo by Ro, of her own feet in her teeny (muddy) Chucks.

Also? While typing the word "taxi" elsewhere earlier, I realized I had no idea what the etymology of that word was. Thanks to Wikipedia, I now do. And holy hell is it complex:

"Harry Nathaniel Allen of The New York Taxicab Co., who imported the first 600 gas-powered New York taxicabs from France, coined the word "taxicab" as a contraction of "taximeter cabriolet". "Taximeter" is an adaptation of the French word taximètre, which is a derivation of the German word taxameter, coined from Medieval Latin taxa, which means tax/charge, together with meter from the Greek metron (μέτρον) meaning measure.^[1] A "cabriolet" is a type of horse-drawn carriage."

'Round Here

2011-04-19T22:46:00.001-04:00

Something radiates...

From Tina Fey's new book Bossypants

2011-04-18T16:05:00.001-04:00

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half and stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her, when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short - a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day - And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.

-A Mother's Prayer for her Daughter, Tina Fey

Setting up a Pagan Altar for Children

2011-04-18T13:33:00.001-04:00

(I was reminded that I had written this when writing about our nature table. I hacked it together quickly a few years ago when I considered applying to write for the Examiner, which I never did. I figured I'd post it here and get it out of the way. Above, my old altar from our house in Mesa.)

It’s probably safe to say that most Pagans with home Altars have a certain degree of reverence for their space. The likelihood that this space is filled with things of a delicate or dangerous nature his high. Ceramic bowls, incense burners and candlesticks, sharp athames and matches, even perfume oils and large stones can pose a potential threat to even the most gentle and intelligent child.

A great idea for any Pagan family with young children would be to help them build an altar of their very own. Choose a low table, such as a coffee table, one which could easily be found at a local thrift shop or garage sale. Help the children choose an altar cloth, either by going to a local fabric store, or purchase a few “playsilks” in seasonally appropriate colors that you can rotate as the year passes.

Then, together as a family project, you might craft deity sculptures (or buy them online if you’re not so crafty,) made from wood or cloth, or use an applicable action figure. Even dressing a Barbie up as a Goddess would encourage play and connectivity with spirituality. Once the basis for the altar is set, make a point of motivating them to choose personal items to adorn it with, such as small figurines, stones, feathers or artwork. The more they add, the more personal it will become, changing with the seasons as each child puts their personal mark on the altar space.

If candles are an important part of ritual time with your children, get them their very own! Wax or plastic LED luminaries that click on and off can be found nearly everywhere. A set of three, for example, for the God, Goddess, and Ancestors, would be a lovely and safe addition to any child’s altar space.

The New Gnome Nest

2011-04-17T22:00:00.005-04:00

(Gnew gnome gnest? Say that ten times fast.)

I spent about five hours today over at my friend Amy's house with my crafty brain on fire because I have just recently started working on a seasons/nature table for myself and Ro, and I wanted, more than anything else in the world, to put a gnome house on it. You know, so the gnomes and fairies could live there, and we could decorate the house for the different holidays and just... see how it went.

Truthfully, I really wanted this one from Magic Cabin, but how could I ever justify the price? It's beautiful, but so far out of my budget. What is in my budget? Erm... a $4 box of one thousand popsicle sticks. Luckily, I had just read this post over at Almost Unschoolers about building a doll house out of balsa and popsicle sticks. Now I was thinking!

Luckily, I'm friends with Amy, who is a downright hoarder when it comes to craft supplies. (And thank god!) I told her what I was up to, and then showed up at her house to discover a table full of slices of old logs, bird's nests, birch bark, and plenty more.

After five hours of Dremeling, hot-gluing, X-acto-ing, scissoring, burning myself, cussing, laughing, and genius, this is what I wound up with:

Three gnomes and two mice have moved in, along with their two spools, their warm red rug, and the robin's egg they've been sworn to keep safe! I'll take better photos in the daylight, (I promise,) once there's flowers in the window boxes and a better sense of springtime all around. No worries about the gnomes, though, they feel right at home.

Spring is out there, finally!

2011-04-14T12:36:00.003-04:00

Reading: Update

2011-04-13T17:27:00.001-04:00

Needless to say, what with the move and everything going on, I haven't been getting a lot of reading done, and I did not start, nor finish, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Instead, I wound up picking up a copy of Gregory Maguire's Mirror Mirror while I was at a consignment sale last month. I own Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and I thought it was fantastic, so I knew I'd like this, and I do. I'm a huge, huge sucker for retellings of classic fairy tales, and this is no different. Dark, unique, clever, and somehow wrapped around the Borgias, which is a wild twist. Though (for me) it seemed to take a little bit of time to really pick up speed and intrigue, I loved it anyway.

April 13th, Mirror Mirror, Gregory Maguire
February 8th, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood.
January 26th, Plot, Ansen Dibell.
January 24th, The Knot's Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions, Carley Roney.
January 22nd, Of Bees and Mist, Erick Setaiwan.
January 19th, Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (read twice, back to back.)

Not sure what's up next, but now that I have my WHOLE LIBRARY unpacked and in my living room, it's bound to be something good, and soon.

Other Projects of Re-Painting

2011-04-11T20:30:00.003-04:00

So my parent's back-yard neighbors moved, after being in the house they were in for probably forty years. They cut ties with tons and tons of their belongings, and I wound up with several pieces of furniture, among other household accoutrement and other things (like the first 8 Foxfire books!) It's sad that they're gone, truly, they were really good people, but on the flipside, it is because of them I have discovered this sudden adoration of painting old wooden furniture.

A few posts ago I mentioned how I'd repainted Ro's little table and chairs, and her bathroom step-stool. Here is the old nightstand that I painted the same color (also for use in the bathroom.)

Poor quality photo, I know, but I think it turned out really nice! Next up, an old wooden dry sink that had been beaten up and well loved and even had a huge chip taken out of the top of one of the doors:

You can still see the chip at the top of the doors (right where they meet.) But it's far less obvious painted this shade of dark red than it was when it was wood! It's now holding tabletop gaming supplies and Magic cards in the dining room. (Hey! What, we're nerds. I make no apologies.)

I admit I'm becoming a little bit of an addict, but I'm running out of space. I don't think I have the room to do any more acquisitions/refinishing projects! But it IS really fun, that much is true.

All The News That's Fit To Print

2011-04-11T15:45:00.001-04:00

Holy cannoli, can you believe it? We just got our mitts on the internet four days ago and it's kind of like coming back to the States after 18 days in Europe. (Ask me how I'd know!) Anyway, here I am, and here we are, all cozy at home in the city and already fast on the heels of Easter planning. (And wedding planning! My first wedding I'm officiating is coming up on the 16th!)

Things are a little too too to talk about in words, but I do have some relatively important news to impart on the magazine front.

Join KidsFunPlaza Magazine for the Kids Fun Summer Expo

This Saturday from 10am to 7pm at Colonie Center in Albany!

The pressure is off for parents to find the right summer camp for their kids- no more driving around the capital district or googling for hours on end. Come meet all the reps from all the local camps, together in one place! Over 40 reps will be available to answer your questions from:

Sleepaway and Day Camps
Athletic Programs
Teen Adventure Programs
Fine Art Programs
Public and Private School Camps
County Programs
Foreign Language Camps & More!

While you're camp shopping, let the kids enjoy a full day of hands-on camp workshops to give your kids an early taste of summer activities, entertainment from Radio Disney, a bouncy castle, costumed characters to hug and take photos with, and more!

Come away with a tote bag with all your information stashed inside by RSVP-ing here for this free event, and we look forward to seeing you at our table!

PS: Even if you're not a parent looking for summer camps, feel free to stop by our table anyway, learn about our magazine and what we're doing in the capital district. We're excited to talk to you. =)

Happy 1st Birthday, Brynne!

2011-03-25T17:43:00.001-04:00

(Roary was very very happy to come enjoy cupcakes at your rock star birthday bash! We hope every birthday you have is at least this awesome!)

Looking Out

2011-03-25T17:40:00.003-04:00

Small Things Starting to Look Like Home

2011-03-23T17:36:00.001-04:00

(Ro took that last photo of me. She's getting pretty good!)

Just Two of Many Projects

2011-03-20T02:53:00.002-04:00

Ro has had this IKEA Svala table and chairs for years. As you can see, it's well abused. I decided it was due time to sand the crayon, marker, paint and stickers off, and give them a fresh coat of paint before moving them into the new apartment.

This is the step-stool/booster seat that Grandpa Pinney made for Ro when she was working on potty training. I decided to paint it sea glass green and it looks pretty fresh in the new bathroom!

More projects than this are in the works, and I'm loving it! It's amazing what a coat of paint can do for your spirits and your furnishings. =)

Happy Big Moon Night

2011-03-20T02:32:00.001-04:00

Goodnight moon.

Perigee from Halfmoon, NY over the Hudson, March 2011.

These Stupid Stairs

2011-03-15T21:53:00.002-04:00

I took one load to the new house tonight, and let me tell you something. Moving stuff to the third floor is sort of a nightmare. But once you're up there and you have a second to stop moving and unwind, and your body shakes off the burn, you realize- you're loose. You're ready. You want to do more. And then, that night, you sleep like the dead because stairs suck...

...but I need the exercise.

A Tube Scarf

2011-03-15T14:47:00.001-04:00

Forgive the tired, vacant stare. It's been a little crazy around here. (Moving!) Here's my second knitting project, all finished! (...Just in time for spring. Oops.) It's a scarf! I knitted a very long tube and connected the ends- it's mostly Lion Brand Homespun in Edwardian with a band of that colorway they don't sell anymore (it was white with variegated pastels, going through the entire color spectrum.) And another band of some plain gray worsted weight wool I only had a smidge left of.

It's very squishy and warm! I'm considering it a sampler, of sorts (even though it's only one stitch) for practice's sake. Yeah!

Channeling Kirsten for Spring

2011-03-15T00:11:00.001-04:00

I have always loved this outfit. Like- wanted it for myself loved it. It's kind of ridiculous, and maybe I could do without the jaunty hat, but that chalk-striped dress and cherry-red shoes made me monumentally happy. I've loved this outfit since I was nine, and almost twenty years later, I've finally, finally managed to get the same feel going. I don't have a picture of me wearing it, because it just hasn't been warm out enough yet- but I will! In the mean time, check out the look book:

Total: $9.99. 50% off the price of the original outfit for the Kirsten doll, and it fits me a whole lot better, too. I love it! Perfect for a stroll up to the Pioneer Food Coop with Ro in tow, and our shopping bags swinging.

Fixing Chairs

2011-03-14T23:45:00.002-04:00

These chairs are kind of gorgeous, but they're also in need of a little TLC. Theyr'e each cracked in an identical fashion, betraying their age of at least a hundred years. They came from our neighbors, who are, incidentally, also moving by April 1st. There are four of them, (chairs, not neighbors,) and they have become my very first ever furniture refinishing project.

As you can see, things are a little crazy in the front room right now, as furniture and odds and ends from the neighbors are coming in, and furniture and boxes from us are going out. It's kind of a circus in here, but at least it's one that should be all cleared out by the end of the week.

Poignant Right Now

2011-03-10T20:24:00.001-05:00

Postcard from The Peace Resource Project, painting by Pawel Kuczynski.

The Cop-Out

2011-03-09T00:45:00.001-05:00

I have entirely too much to write about- I do. The sudden explosion of my new career path, the packing, the fever in my head of having blogging standards and ethics in a social media obsessed world, knitting and embroidery projects, wondering if there's lead in my lipstick...

But it's half past midnight, and I don't want to talk about anything now. So here's a picture of Ro off of our cell phone, and a wave from me, just letting you know, I'm here. Just busy. But definitely here.

Welcome Home

2011-03-05T14:33:00.005-05:00

Well it's not our Forever House, but it's the point between here and there. It's the city house, in a Dickens, Austen, fantastic sort of way. A 1200 sq ft Victorian flat in the heart of South Troy. It's a gem, and it's ours. We take occupancy on April 1st, and will enjoy springtime in the city, a short walk to what I hear is the best coffee shop in Troy, a slightly longer walk to the public library, and a short jaunt away from Prospect Park, which (yay!) has a playground. We're around the corner from one set of friends, down the hill from another set, and a few blocks away from yet others. It'll be good to rock the urban life for a while. What did Mary Schmich say?

"Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft."

Well, Troy's not entirely unlike NYC, in my opinion. Time to live there, if only for a little while.

The Craning Gap

Quiet Consideration

365: #018 Two Tiny Dresses

365: #017 Birthday Bunting

Birthday Party Cheesecake Jelly Bean Boom!

This child is five today.

Two Weeks

Exploring Albany's Past, Part 2

Exploring Albany's Past

Gamers

Happy 4th of July

Capital District Farmer's Market Guide [Updated 9/2010]

A Taste of Tasty Architecture

365: #016 Button Necklace (again!)

Reading: Update

365: #015 My Office

Bad Hair Month

This Here Career

Frozen All-Fruit Berry Pops YUM

365: #014 Reverse Tie-Dye

365: #013 Button Necklace

Alright Already!

Still here.

A New Library to Discover

Looking Back on Walking Out

Reading: Update

Ro-isms, Age 4.5

Hay Soup

What to Eat, What to Eat

It's MY*T*FINE

Free to a Good Home

The Life Recycled

Craigsfriends

What do you mean, April Showers?

365: #012 Scrapbooking Catchup

365: #011 Little Deities

The Organic Argument, Again

365: Crafty Update

Homeschooling, A Misnomer

Sometimes, Candy.

Blueberry Scones

Learning to Love the CSA Box

Progress in the Garden

Perfect Light

Omnivore, Herbivore, Locavore

Fiddleheads

Toe Feet Shoe Shoes

New Kid on the Block

365: #010 Hair Flair

Leaving the Magazine

Happy Mother's Day

I want to be a part of it

365: #009 Scrapbooking Catchup

A Moment of Peace

365: Guest Blog - Wipes Cover

365: #008 Scrapbooking Catchup

365: #006 & #007 The Gnome Pond & Fairy Boat

How we Spent our Day

365: #005 My Summer Purse

365: #004 Knitting Fail

Come sit and read.

Violet! You're turning violet, Violet.

365: #003 Windowsill Herb Garden

Signs of Spring

365: #002 Dish Rack Mat

365: #001 Fairies

Introducing the 365 Craft-A-Day Challenge

Happy Eostre!

Sick Kid

Bunny-Butt Bunting, Just in the Nick of Time

The Gnome House at Play

Just a Quick One 'Cause I Can't Sleep

'Round Here

From Tina Fey's new book Bossypants

Setting up a Pagan Altar for Children

The New Gnome Nest

Spring is out there, finally!

Reading: Update

Other Projects of Re-Painting

All The News That's Fit To Print

It's MYTFINE