bee creative

Thank you for coming to visit!  This is a place to leave a comment if you have a question, a suggestion, or just want to say you were  here.  Comments are being turned off on individual posts for awhile.  If I decide to continue this way, I'll erase comments after they have been up for a month. 

recyle day: mending the wardrobe

While buying clothing at a consignment shop can be a good thing for the environment and the budget, it isn't always the best way to build a wardrobe.

This is what I have for summer: 4 tops, 1 pair of shorts, 2 skirts, 2 pairs of capris plus one pair of lighter jeans for cooler days. 

Unfortunately, the tops and the bottoms don't go together very well.  It isn't just a matter of colors and patterns, but of the cut/style of the clothing.

To solve the problem I decided to make a few new things:

A dark blue linen shirt.  I still haven't decided how to finish the neckline on this.  I used a pattern for a button down shirt for this. 

A white linen shirt.

And a tank top. 

All three of these are cut to tunic length.  I want to keep them all simple so that they will go with many different types of pants and skirts.  So that I can layer vests or jackets over the top of them; or in the case of the tank top, use it as a jumper.   I want the clothing I make to be for every season....

 

recycle day

Tuesdays are recycle day in my neighborhood.  I'm thinking it might be a good day to share some more creative ways to recycle, rather than putting things out along the alley.  Something like this...

I've decided to sort my knitting needles by size.  I have some house number stickers so I thought one container for each size.  It might take me awhile as I don't buy much in jars or cans, but eventually I'll have a row of containers for each size of needle. 

moving through the day

4:44 AM  I can hear the rain hitting the chimney.  Often I wonder what it would be like to live under a tin roof.

6:01  Having my second cup of coffee.  Wondering about wardrobe choices.  Layers are very necessary where I live.  I wonder if the lighter layers for winter could be made to stand alone for summer?

6:56  Just came back in from the letting the chickens out.  The code for the sky scarf for the last three days would be G-G-G.

8:04  This morning I'm being more deliberate about cheese making then I usually am.  I'm following these directions for making Paneer.

9:00 Been working on a Jelly for the last hour. There's a break in the rain so I'm off to the grocery store to get potting soil.

9:55  On my way to the grocery store I saw two cars go by with snow on them.  Talked to one of my brothers and he said he had an inch of snow this morning.  No April Fools joke, that is unless you thought it was spring...

11:23  Just finished planting up the tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, and broccoli.  The indigo isn't up yet.  Maybe I need to reseed?  Nope, need to be patient, I just looked up the germination time and it can take over 32 days!

(I'm particularly pleased with these tomatoes.  They grew from seed that I saved two years ago.  I'll thin these to just one plant in a couple days.) 

2:34  Spent an hour or so outside, some beautiful sun breaks off and on this afternoon.  Made an indigo vat (chemical) to dye a sweater that could use a pick-me-up. 

4:00 Cleared the table.  I'm finding that I need to have an open space available to work if I want to keep working on things during the week.  But I constantly fight a desire to stack things...like books.

6:23  Time to think about what I need for work tomorrow. 

dark days: fish for dinner

 

Local halibut with chives and thyme from the garden.  I did add a bit of salt and pepper.  Pickles for a vegetable.  I had red potatoes as well but was too hungry to wait for them to cook, so they'll wait for another meal. Maybe breakfast...

 

because

for Jude and Was and family

because I remember...

 

unwrapping "share"

Out of the hat came the name Suzanna.   

Congratulations!

 

The yarn that I made this cowl with was made by Manos del Uruguay, bought at one of the locally owned yarn stores where I live.  While I am trying to buy local wool as much as possible now, this feels like a good exception. 

unwrapping "connect"

I always come back to connections.  How do things connect in a sustainable way?  Sustainable for me to maintain, for the environment...to sustain who I want to be. 

I stitched my fish down.  The fabric for this project was reclaimed from two shirts that had seen better days.  The fish is made with fabric dyed with leaves from the garden, onion skins, and pomegranate. 

I want to make more fish to be used on the other side of my Following Sea blanket...

My thought is to leave this side pretty much as it is now.  I am going to stitch a few jellyfish on the top, moon jellyfish.  I'm pretty sure these are the jellyfish I remember from my childhood. 

The other side, that's where most of the creatures of the sea will be, under the water.   A community...

measuring and holding

Some things are just a bit behind schedule.  Finishing up a pair of fingerless mitts that I'm making for my dad.  Should have finished them 2 months ago. 

(A bobby pin makes a very handy stitch holder for 10 to 12 stitches.)

I've lost track of how many socks, hats, mittens, scarves, sleeves of sweaters I've knit on the bus.  But I do know I've traveled at least 11,242 miles by bus over the last 5 1/2 years.  If my math is right, another 241,469 miles and I could have traveled to the moon...

I've recently found a quote I really love (at The Drawing Board):

"But unless we are creators we are not fully alive.  What do I mean by creators?  Not only artists, whose acts of creation are the obvious ones of working with paint or clay or words.  Creativity is a way of living life, no matter our vocation or how we earn our living."  Madeline L'Engle

 

 

change

Noticing:  Pulmonaria in the garden.  The Forsythia started to bloom today too.

And doing:

Mending a hole in my buckwheat pillow.  

And:

Knit, fulled, and dropped into the cabbage dye bath.  The shiny yarn is a banana fiber.   The dye didn't take in the wool well so I tossed it back in.   I rinsed the fabric sooner than I usually do. 

One of my great-grandmother's lace doily's.  It has some stains/rust spots.  One of the interesting things about this piece is that the center medallion is crocheted in a heavier thread then the outside ring of flowers.  I tossed it into an onion skin dye bath.

I have an idea. 

comfort

Some days I like to walk home in the rain and the wind.

Today I could have made a better choice about footwear though.

It made me wish I still had some of the tomato soup I had for dinner last night.

This is my dark days meal for the week.  I made it with tomatoes from the freezer, an onion, herbs, and just a tiny bit of olive oil and salt.  The olive oil and salt were not local.  All ingredients were roasted in the oven for about an hour.  And then I tossed everything into the blender. 

Since the oven was on, I decided to bake the last of the potatoes from the farmer's market.  I'll still be able to get local potatoes from the co-op, something that makes me very happy. 

And then a small project that also brings comfort:

I made this scarf a year or two ago with a skein of locally spun/dyed yarn.  I love this yarn, but it slides of my neck very easily.  Rather annoying.  So tonight I spun just a bit of yarn and crocheted the two edges together to make it into a cowl.  Much better. 

Using things up...

Years ago I wouldn't have been able to imagine not having milk in the house...it was essential.

Last night I decided to use up what milk I had to make one of my favorite treats, pudding.  Topped with the last of the strawberry-honey jam I made last year.  

I am feeling no sense of panic about having used up the milk.

I've been using up some favorite scraps on this project.

I'm feeling no sense of panic that there won't be more favorites.  New favorites come along...and it's good, maybe even necessary?  Thinking about what I consider essential and why. 

dark days: meals and garden

I actually could harvest something to eat from the garden right now:

A few warm days and I'm going to have a nice crop of Swiss chard and kale so I'll wait.  I could also raid the lettuce that reseeded from last year and the chickweed I suppose.  There is another weed in that mix as well, not sure what it is. 

Spent a couple hours in the garden today, mostly pruning the large apple tree but also doing a bit of weeding.  I decided to be brave and planted a few peas and some spinach in my little hoop house. 

Dark Days Meal:

Some of my Dark Days meal for the week did come from the garden.  I picked a handful of parsley, a bit of sage and a branch of rosemary.  This is a spin on a recipe from The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.  The recipe I based it on is "Farro Risotto."  I left out the olive oil, garbanzo beans, orange zest, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and added some butter, cauliflower, diced apple and local cheese instead.  I should have added some hazelnuts too.   99.9% local, just used a bit of salt. 

 

 

coming around

Last Friday I walked home along the boardwalk...

This Friday I played a little bit...

It's been a very long week... but it's Friday again.  And Monday will be a new week. 

Jude's post today (Spirit Cloth) reminded me of something I hadn't posted yet.  A little sample I worked on the last month of December.  My parents found some local cashmere wool for me.  It's a bit hard for me to spin by itself, but mixes in beautifully with some other wool that I have.  A bit of the cashmere can be seen in the picture.  It's a brownish gray and is so very soft.

being local: food, seeds, and yarn

Food:

For the next Dark Days post there is a challenge, to make desert!  What a great reason to do a little playing in the kitchen...

Coeur a la Creme, raspberry sauce, and cookies.  It was a bit of work, but I'd do it again.  

First I started with making cream cheese.  Cream cheese is really easy to make, it just takes a little time.  I used directions from Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll.  It wasn't until I was washing the dishes that I realized one tiny little non-local thing had made it into the mix, the culture for the cream cheese.  Oh well!  Cultures probably aren't something I'd ever give up as I explore sustainability as a life style. 

My recipe for Coeur a la Creme called for cream cheese, sugar, cream, egg white and kirsch.  I substituted honey for the sugar and left out the kirsch. 

The raspberry sauce was made with frozen raspberries, water and honey.  I cooked the berries until they were syrupy. 

The cookie recipe came from here.  I used butter, honey, local flour, and hazelnuts.  If anyone decides to try this recipe, watch the cooking time.  I almost burnt my cookies.  I want to explore this site more as I switch to baking with honey rather than sugar.  

All that cooking inspired me to clean the fridge:

I store my bulk items in canning jars.  I have rice, flours, nuts and seeds here.  Plus pickles and jams.  And cream cheese! 

 

Seeds:

I've been considering a lot how eating local depends a lot on planning ahead.  Last week I found quinoa seed.  I've never grown it before, so it will be a bit of an experiment. 

Yarn:

My latest bus project.  I've lost count of how many socks I've knit now.  The yarns used in these socks are "leftovers" and the green in these socks is a local yarn.  

 

 

dark days: knitting and eating and thinking

Somehow my mind has started connecting my sky scarf and the Dark Days challenge.  I think because I am knitting with local yarn (mostly!) and there is so much gray right now...

The sky scarf, month number five: 

 I've been wondering, once the scarf is finished, will someone look at it and think, "Hmm...that reminds me of the sky?"  Will they look closer and see the fat white stripe, and wonder if that was our snow storm?  Will they see the orange stripe and wonder if that was the morning after the lunar eclipse? 

Yesterday as I was knitting, it became very real to me that a story can be told without images or words.  That a color could hold a story...

 

As for food...

I didn't really join the Dark Days Challenge to explore eating locally, I already knew I could.  I mostly wanted to check in with myself to see if I was eating as locally as I thought I was.  To push myself a little further. 

The ingredients that I find myself considering the most as I plan these meals are fats for cooking, sweeteners, salt, baking soda/powder,  and spices.    This is where I am at currently as I consider these ingredients:

Fats:  I am using butter, hazelnut oil (very sparingly as it's expensive), or cooking with water instead of my usual olive oil for the most part.  I have also used some bacon fat and might at some point consider rendering fat (don't look if you are vegetarian!).  I don't eat much meat though.   Today I experimented with making ghee. 

Sweeteners:  Honey or fruit (apple cider works great for some things).  This really changes baking.  Found a web site this morning that I want to explore more.  But really, the bottom line here is that I need to bake less. 

Salt:  I am going to try making my own.  Found this blog post for a resource.   Just have to decide which beach seems best to collect from....

Baking soda/powder:  Well, back to that baking issue.  Sour dough anyone? 

Spices and cultures:  Certainly we could adjust to cooking without spices.  Many wonderful herbs can be grown locally.   I could either give up foods that made with a culture (some of the cheeses I want to make for example) or be really wild and see what cultures are hanging around (that could be dangerous I'm thinking).  But that seems to be taking things a bit far.  I'm pretty sure the shipping of cinnamon is more sustainable than apples from New Zealand to Washington. 

 

 

The other thing that I am looking at is that I've given myself a bit of a break by allowing foods that are bulk to be exceptions to the local rule.  This is the area that I can get better at.  I think I can establish the same rule for bulk that I have for vegetables and fruits.  If I can find it or grow it locally, I have to buy it locally first.  If it's not available in Washington, then it needs to come from the west coast. 

 

This week's Dark Days meal was an experiment in making pasta with whole wheat flour.   This is one of the flour choices that is available to me locally. 

I made a topping by sauteing onions in butter, adding a handful of cabbage and then sprinkling in a bit of rosemary.  Tasted great, looks... well... And I cheated a bit.  Used salt. 

 

in season: last farmer's market + a little crafting

 

A few years ago I bought a set of glow in the dark stars for a project that I was doing for some children.  

A couple weeks ago I brought one of them home and set it on a counter.  I was a bit surprised to see it glowing one night when I turned out the light.  The shadowed part of the star is where it didn't absorb as much light due to a dish that was sitting next to it.

 

We are certainly entering the darkest part of the year.  This morning dawn was at 7:58 and sunset will be at 4:14.  That's just a little more than 8 hours of day light. 

I've recently realized that one of the things I appreciate about this time of year is the ability to see the stars and the moon more often when the skies are clear...but I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer again too. 

Saturday was the last Farmer's market for the year.  I bought a few vegetables and fruits to eat this week, cheese, and dried beans and a few more potatoes to add to the winter supply.

It's time to see if I can make it through the winter without buying fruits and vegetables that aren't local; the exceptions being citrus and avocados (if I can find them) from California. 

My Dark days sole meal seemed too easy... potatoes, pickles I made this summer and creme fraiche.    This is a combination I found in a cookbook named Plenty by Diana Henry.  At first it seemed a little strange but then I realized that it really is a warm potato salad.  Henry suggests salmon as a possible addition to this meal.  That would be good.  I'm going to try it that way next time.

One of the things I've realized recently is how lucky I am that the area I live in can grow such a variety of food. 

Back to present making... 

shelter will be the word

I recently checked out a few books from the library about shelters (thanks again Henrietta!).  One of them referenced a few builders/writers of books that I already had in my collection.

So now the current pile of books I am reading looks like this:

I read the same way I do everything else...a bit here, a bit there and then eventually I will finish.  But not really, because the best books are re-read and thought about and change with perspective and experience. That's the way all things are for me. 

More connections forming.

Shelter, I think that is something I've always been working towards.  And so "shelter" will become the word for 2012. 

It's the why.

I was recently remembering these two came from a shelter...

Shelter can mean so many things. 

lunar eclipse

I spent about 45 minutes outside this morning, watching the moon become transformed.  Not invisible but something else than it usually is. The photographs I took seem much redder than the moon actually was. 

And then the clouds rolled in and the moon was gone.

I was left with the idea that the moon might drip light...

I brought this home today along with the food that I purchased at the farmer's market.  I'm going to call it my red moon button.  

feeding the soul

I took all of these pictures today. 

On the way to work...

On the way home...

Along the edge of the water a man stood playing his violin.  I thought of taking his picture, but that always seems wrong to me.  To take a picture without asking.  And to  have interrupted him would have been an intrusion. 

"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)/it's always ourselves we find in the sea"

e.e. cummings

 

And a song that has become a favorite.

 

 

shelter

This is a bit of a ramble. 

I wonder often about creativity.  How it comes to us.  Why some people are considered creative.  Why some people don't consider themselves creative. 

For me it is often about finding connections and curiosity and problem solving. 

For one of the Magic Diaries posts, Jude spoke about rings and connections and making meaning.   As I was listening to the audio clip she had made, I was finishing some of the last rows on my sweater.  It started me thinking about how knitting in the round is all about building ring upon ring, one row at a time until it becomes something more.  Generally some sort of shelter.  And that led me to the understanding that what ultimately draws me to cloth, is that cloth is about giving shelter.  Even perhaps something made for the wall that we might consider decorative might also be a form of insulation.  Or perhaps shelter for our hearts and souls.  Such an important thing, shelter. 

Originally the word or concept I wanted to explore for 2012 was "current" but I'm wondering if "shelter" might be a better direction, a better focus.  Or perhaps they will connect a bit.  We often need shelter from air currents or water currents; electrical currents travel through our homes and our bodies. 

And then...as connections seem to come to me; I read in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard:

"We found other caddisfly cases that day, Sally and I, after I had learned to focus so fine, and I saved one.  It is a hollow cylinder three quarters of an inch long, a little masterpiece of masonry consisting entirely of cemented grains of coarse sand only one layer thick... The caddisfly larva will use any bits it can find to fashion its house...."

Ring after ring...building shelter. 

 

 

dark days challenge: preparing for the week ahead

So I am thinking I will aim for a bit of a schedule with Dark Days posts.  Every Sunday and Wednesday I will probably post about food.  I think more than anything, joining this challenge is about posting on a regular basis about food.  It's an important part of how I express myself creatively.  I also think it sometimes takes some creativity to eat sustainably, organically, locally, and ethically, especially during the "off" season.  It would be lovely if it didn't, but that's not the world we live in yet. 

Because weekday meals have to be quicker to prepare and easy, I often spend a good part of the weekend trying special food projects or preparing basics that I will eat for the week.  For example,  I love this recipe for homemade Bouillon.  I often add it to beans, grains, pasta dishes or salad dressing during the week.  This weekend I decided to make a dehydrated version. 

I noticed some of the onions I had bought for storage were sprouting (probably not dry enough when they were harvested) so I dehydrated a handful of onions, carrots  some celery leaves and parsley.  

I placed it all in the blender with some salt and made a seasoned salt.  Or a bouillon? 

I tested it out in soup that I made with winter squash from my garden, apple from Mom and Dad's, celery and onion from the farmer's market.  Topped with a pickled crab apple; one of my other experiments this weekend. 

I pickled both crab apples and seckle pears.  They are supposed to sit for a month before eating, but I just couldn't wait to try a few.  Oh so good!  

Some of the squash  was also used in a salad.  I sauteed it with raisins, hazelnuts and spices and then put it on top of a green salad with cheese. 

There are two more pieces of squash in the fridge that I will eat this week.  Not sure how yet. 

And then there is the project I am waiting on right now:

I am making feta.  This is my second attempt (lesson learned from first batch, less salt), but the first time with cow's milk (might have a little less tangy-ness).   I'll try to have more info on this up on Wednesday. 

__________________________

The break down for  2 meals plus 3 prepared foods

Local and organic:  onion, carrot, parsley, celery, squash, apple, vinegar, ginger (yep, isn't that cool!), lettuce, raisins, and hazelnuts.

Local but not organic: milk, butter (I made it from local cream), and cheese.  Local but not organic is something I need to look a bit closer at.  The milk and cream come in glass bottles.  I have chosen to go that route over local and organic and in plastic. 

Organic but not local:  Pepper, pears, cinnamon, sugar,  and olive oil.  The only one there that I should have used would be the pepper and cinnamon; the rest I could have found substitutes for.  For the pears, I could have sliced larger local pears.  For the sugar in the pickled fruit, honey of course!  Instead of olive oil, I could have used hazelnut oil or left it out. 

Not organic or probably organic but I don't remember for sure: spices used with the squash, the salt, vegetable rennet, and culture for the cheese. 

Ethical and sustainable?  I believe so! 

 

 

Dark Days Challenge: eating from local food sources

This year I've decided to participate in the Dark Days of winter eat local Challenge . The goal is to eat a meal once a week sourced only from sustainable, organic, local, ethical sources and to blog at least once a week about our efforts.

For the past three years or so I've made sure that most of my food is either local or purchased bulk all year long,  so I know I can do a couple meals each week.    We have some great resources in this area and I've figured out pretty well how much I need to preserve to get me through the winter. 

The big challenge for me is to make sure I don't cut back on the amount of fruits and vegetable I should eat, just to maintain eating locally.  To balance eating a healthy diet with being local, even through the hardest month, March.... 

Also, in addition to at least the one sustainable, organic, local, ethical meal per week, I want to work on is replacing some of the foods that I buy bulk with local options.  Hazelnut butter rather than peanut butter.  Honey rather than sugar (which I've been changing over to for several months now).  That kind of thing.

I can be a little more creative with the food choices I think. 

 

 

a full heart

Yesterday there was a bit of slush on the deck, but no real snow here.  Sunny today, but cold enough that the frost never melted in some places.     Cold enough for the wool coat.

I've had this coat for over twenty years.  For much of that time it's been my primary winter coat.  I have started wearing raincoats more often (better for riding the bus and walking when it rains of course), but this is still my favorite for a cold day.  It is showing it's age a bit and needs some mending.

This morning's project: 

I can see covering the whole backside of the collar with stitching.  I don't think I'd ever have thought about mending this way without Jude. Thank you...

I also spent some time at a demonstration/sale put on by the local weaving guild today.  A very generous group of people.  I watched spinners, weavers, a carding demonstration and had some wonderful conversations.  And then came home to try plying yarn.   Crocheted up a little sample too.   It's going to take some practice, but it's a good next step.

This handful of roving did not come from the sale, but rather from the farmer's market.  It was a gift from one of the vendors.  I had stopped to watch her spin and to look at her yarn and we started talking.  She thought I might need a bit of orange for my sky scarf one day...

Today is one of those days when the heart feels full. 

 

one reason

I don't own a car:

It forces you to walk more.  Even when you are tired... 

(These pictures are from earlier in the week.)

And to look closer. 

(This one is from today.)

Some of these leaves are heading for the dye pot. 

 

And a video that I found this morning while I was looking around.

More layers, more storytelling. 

sky scarf + being local

It was raining so hard this morning that I didn't think I was going to go to the farmer's market today.

But as it happened, the sun came out and off I went. 

And it was good.

Good because there were beet and carrot greens for the chickens and good because I had an interesting conversation with a new vendor (selling hand knits and hand-spun yarn) about locally sourced wool and locally made clothing. 

At some point I would like to knit a skirt and a sweater with locally sourced yarn. 

For now I'll keep working on my sky scarf, with local roving. 

The morning rain meant that the color for the scarf today was gray.

After two months of knitting, the sky scarf is 12 1/4 inches. 

When I started the scarf, I cast on as many stitches as my age.  For some reason I keep wanting to add stitches and have to readjust. 

The mushrooms are increasing too.

Maybe they like the rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

less than a five dollar dinner

Today I found a challenge that was something I just had to try, making dinner for five dollars or less.  Why five dollars?  It's the price of an average fast-food value meal. 

I know that I treated myself to a mocha and a cookie this week that cost more than that.

Dinner came in at $1.61 a person, plus I had a glass of wine that would work out to somewhere between $1.50-$2.00.

Zucchini stuffed with quinoa, corn, bell pepper, a touch of walnut, a few spices and topped with cheese.  With a yogurt-basil dressing.  So good...

And all organic, all local except for the quinoa (but was organic) which was purchased in the bulk section at the co-op.  Time to make, less than an hour. 

I think I can still afford a serving of strawberries for desert. 

Berries won't be arround much longer.  It's certainly autumn.

The fall crocus are here. 

one + one + one + one = sustainability

One.

This month marks five years of not having a car.  I know it's not something that works for everyone, but it's worked for me. 

The only major difficulty for me is taking Briar to the vet.  Mom, Dad, and my brothers have all helped me with this.   If I had to I could always call a cab.  Lola could go on the bus if I put her in a carrier.  She would hate that, but it would be an option. 

The bottom line is that I have figured out how to make it work. 

It is scary (and I have thought about this as a result of the most recent storms and fires) to think about how I would evacuate without a car.  But the reality is that the natural disaster I'm most likely to have to deal with is an earthquake.  Evacuating won't help. 

Plus one

Today I experimented with making a new cloth bag.  I don't have it worked out quite right yet, but this is a good start.  For this one I used an old table cloth.  It's in the shape of a plastic grocery bag.

I tested the bag with a trip to the grocery store for milk (to make yogurt).  Worked nicely. 

Plastic bags will be banned in my community starting next year.  I haven't used them in a long time and am very glad to see this being implemented. 

I'm planning on making a cloth bag just for my dad-something appropriate for the hardware store. 

Plus one

The handful of fruit I picked this morning from my garden.

The blueberries and strawberries are just about done.  I have a lot of green tomatoes still, but they are starting to ripen.  Mostly the yellow currant tomatoes that I planted to add a bit of color to salads.  They will probably be my most productive tomatoes. 

Reminds me of the value of diversity.

The blackberries would be self sustaining (they are non-native and invasive) and would take over the whole garden if allowed. 

Plus one

Still using up the dye bath I made with the elderberry leaves.  The fabric will remind me of dahlias when I look at it. 

Cotton (reclaimed or organic), wool, silk, hemp, whatever other natural fibers there are and color absorbed from plants seem to gather the essence of sustainability for me. 

Cloth is about shelter.

Sustainability

About fifteen years ago I started choosing one way I could become more sustainable each year.  It's always been about this time of year that I make that choice.  Past goals have included buying organic/local food, growing as much of my own food as I can, making my own yogurt, using glass instead of plastic for storing food, selling the car, making my own socks, not buying new clothing, getting a library card, the chickens, making gifts or buying them locally, supporting local businesses (even if it costs a bit more), and using non-toxic household cleaning products. 

I'm not sure what my goal will be this year yet.  What I do know is that one + one + one can add up to a lot. 

 

caught...

I was going to make a postcard with this, but I'm not going to get there this week.

I've been working a lot on some big projects at work, a web of sorts...

Thinking about what is essential.  Food, water, shelter, love. 

eating local: pancakes, pizza, and mint ice cream

Pancakes:

At the beginning of the summer there are strawberries, and then I usually can pick all the raspberries I want to eat or preserve, and then blueberries.  By the end of August I have to buy berries again (saving what's in the freezer for winter).  I really savor these, knowing that the season will be over soon...

I'm still experimenting with not eating much wheat and less dairy.  It's been fun trying new foods or using foods in new ways.    The pancakes were made with oat flour (Washington flour), an egg from Chattanooga, almond milk that I made and baking powder. 

Pizza

I've been experimenting with pizza crusts too.  Topped with homemade roasted vegetable sauce, zucchini, onions,peppers, roasted corn and homemade ricotta type cheese. 

I make a farm style cheese about every other week.  I'm not very exact about it.  Just bring what milk I have to an almost boil and then start adding vinegar a tablespoon or so at a time until it curdles.  I then strain the curds from the whey.  Sometimes I press the curds into a jar to mold it, other times I take a fork and stir it up a bit.  Sometimes it gets stringy while I'm cooking it so I knead it a bit after I strain the whey off;  that makes it mozzarella-like. It's really easy, really....

I like that it's not quite exact.

 Mint ice cream

Although this batch of ice cream was made with a bit of sugar, I've been experimenting with sweetening with agave, honey and brown rice syrup.  All seem to work well in ice cream. If I'd made this with honey I would be able to say it was 100% local.  For flavoring I steeped the cream/milk mixture with mint from the garden.  I'll be making more. 

The chocolate sauce is made with agave and cocoa powder and is definitely going to be made again too.  I found the recipe in Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles.

Now it's dinner time...time to go play in the kitchen some more!  Some kind of salad  I think. 

blue eggs...blue skies?

My mother found some local wool for me from a new source.

Seems that it would be perfect for a project suggested by a friend (thanks Sherry!).

The idea is to "knit a stripe in colors to match the sky" every day for a year.  (Leafcutter Designs)

I'm going to tweak the idea a bit by spinning yarn that is a mix of the colors I see in the sky at some point during the first hour after dawn.  It just seemed more meaningful to me to choose a time of day.  That and on any given day we can have everything!  Started this on Monday so I'm at day three. 

I did start with one stripe of hand spun that someone else did, but I'm going to try to do the rest myself with local wool. 

And then:

Arranged in a nine patch for Jude. 

For the last three days I've collected three eggs.  All the chickens are laying now.  The ones to the left are from Chattanooga and should be blue/green.  Not quite yet.

Does anyone know if Ameraucana chicken eggs become more blue as the chickens get older? 

The other thing that is fun about this is the difference in size.  Chattanooga has been laying for about a week and her eggs are tiny.  Rosemary has been laying for a month.  Her eggs started out small too but are already getting larger.  They are in the middle.  Jitterbugs eggs are on the far right.  She is two years old. 

One more nine patch.  Blackberries arranged on top of wool dyed with elderberry leaves. 

I rolled it up and tossed it back in the dye bath with the elderberry leaves. 

 

 

 

first feather

Yesterday I was out and about with Mom and Dad.  For lunch we pulled over by the side of the road to eat some sandwiches Mom had brought along.  We had a greeter:

 

Dad said he was the sentry quail.  Good thing we weren't planning on going down to the beach.

I've been working on a feather for Jude's Magic Feather Project.

My first feather is a phoenix  feather ( I love  "32 Flavors" by Ani DiFranco in which she refers to a phoenix).  The base is the first cloth that I tried batik with plant dyes.   I used a cork to make wax moons and onion skins for the plant dye. 

The color is quite a bit paler then when first dyed as it took a fair amount of heat to remove the wax.

Beginning again...continuing. 

 

 

postcard: the color of water

 

 

Part of making for me is research.  Part of the layers.

What does determine the color of the ocean? 

weekend postcard

It is later than I thought it was and I should be alseep.  So very quickly...a bit of a round up.

I created a tutorial for how I'm making the postcards for Clare and anyone else who would like to try it.  If you do make one and  you post to your blog, please let me know so I can see what you have done.  I am assuming that anyone trying it this way is a bit familiar with Photoshop Elements. 

Making:

Been working a lot on my green sweater.  I've realized that it is the color of tomato leaves. 

I've also been turning small sewing projects into pillows.  A fun use for small things.

Jude is always inspiring.  I love her black and white stitching and wanted to try something similar.  In the spirit of working with what I have I used white wool and a bit that I dyed with indigo.  This would make it crewel embroidery. It may end up as a little pillow too.  Or maybe a patch?

Cooking:

I've tried several new recipes that are wheat free.  One of my favorites so far is a cracker recipe.  

If you try it, and I really recommend that you do, the quinoa flakes can be replaced with rolled oats.  Also I added less olive oil.  Just enough to make it a dough.   

Gardening:

Working in the garden a lot.  I may regret it, but I have a patch of Himalayan blackberries in the back corner.  This fall I'll try to pull them out again. For now, I'll let them be and harvest the berries. 

 Planting a few things for fall/winter:  kale, Swiss Chard, peas, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce.  I'll add some spinach soon too. 

Now is a great time to be thinking about next year's garden layout too. 

Stopping:

 

 So much to do...but now it's time to sleep. 

 

 

 

day twelve: journaling

I was given my first diary as a Christmas gift from my childhood best friend.  I think I was eight or nine at the time.  It was small, red, and had a key.  She would always ask me to show her what I'd written in that diary but I never would.   Not because I had something juicy that I didn't want to share, but because I hadn't used it at all.  I didn't know what to write and I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

One of my aunts gave me my second diary/journal for Christmas when I was ten.  By that time I had things to write and I filled it.  From that point on I've kept a journal.  I don't think my teenage journals are all that interesting, the ones I've kept as an adult interest me more. 

From a trip that I took in 2001:  "I've decided that you can't dwell on what you might be missing, there is so much to enjoy..." 

Image created by layering two photos in Photoshop Elements. 

big projects: a round-up

My horoscope for this week suggested to think big.  Seemed like a good idea to pause and gather up all the big projects I am working on or have in mind right now. 

#1  This one has been gestating in my mind for awhile.  Building on the "Sunbonnet Sue" quilt my mother made for me when I was a child.  Incorporating quilt squares I made with scrapes from my grandfather's work shirts. 

#2  An all velvet quilt.  I have a lot of velvet that was given to me by a friend.  It's time to do something with it.  I'm thinking to do all stripes, but there is this temptation to do some weaving too.

#3 An all blue quilt.  Partly inspired by Jude's idea of a "whole colored cloth."  The other day as I was walking I started thinking about the term "following sea" and what that meant.  "Following sea" is a nautical term that means that a boat is heading in the same direction as the waves, making for easier travel.  I started thinking about how this applies to life...  Lots more thinking to be done on this idea, but I know that I want to make a blanket and that it will need to be blue.  And that it will take a long time. And it will be called  "Following Sea."

#4  The woven wool blanket.

#5  Green sweater.

#6 Shawl made with my own hand-spun yarn, using local wool. 

#7  My house, my home.  An older home is always a project.  I'm doing a lot of sorting and redefining my spaces.  I'm ready to paint again. 

#8  The garden.  I recently realized that how I approach making everything is probably due to the influence of a childhood spent in gardens.  Everything is process.  Everything has a season.  Everything starts with a seed. 

I want my garden to be a source of food, medicine, color, shelter and delight.

#9  My diet.  I've been eating primarily organic foods for a long time, probably over 15 years now.  Over the last four years I've moved towards mostly local or bulk and less meat.  Now it's time for less sugar, wheat and dairy.  One of them, maybe all of them has been affecting my health.  Not in a huge way, but in a slow way that dulls my energy. 

This weekend I've tried a lot of new gluten-free recipes.  I'm remembering how much I love to cook. 

The picture is cranberry sparkling water.  I made some cranberry syrup (cleaning the freezer, it's just cranberries, sugar and lemon juice) and added it to sparkling water.  This is a very exciting thing for me.  I love cranberry juice but stopped drinking it because I don't like either the ingredients or flavors of most ones that can be purchased. 

#10 Life.  Isn't that the biggest project of all? 

Have a safe and wonderful day... I'll be posting my daily picture later today. 

perseverance

There is just this one lonely flower on my Lady Banks rose.  A couple of years ago it was covered with blooms.  And then we had a really difficult winter.  Come spring I cut it back to the base and hoped for the best.  Two years later a bloom. 

This is about perseverance too.  Time to weave some more squares. 

gardening, eating, and knitting

The sun was out so today was almost all about the garden...  Lots of weeds to pull, planted beans and carrots, prepped my beds for the squash and corn.  I'm mulching the potatoes with hay for the first time.  Curious to see how this works out.  

Yesterday was about the farmer's market.  First local strawberries of the year!  And I cheated on my diet.  It was, at least, gluten free.  I didn't ask about milk.  Generally there may or may not be milk in this type of cookie.  There was certainly some sugar, but the strawberries were sweeter...

Was it worth it?  Oh yes.  I'm not sure I had much of a reaction that I could pin on the cookie, but I can say that I have noticed a difference in health after giving up wheat, dairy and sugar.   It will be very interesting to see what changes when I reintroduce these foods to my daily diet.  It has been worth the experiment.

I thought I might see some changes in congestion but what I didn't expect was that my joints would feel more flexible.  I can knit for longer...

 

 

at the bus station last Friday morning...

 

I meant to post these last week but got a bit distracted.  Some days are like that...

I can't say that I like all of this poem, but I really like this part:

"I saw Eternity the other night,

Like a great ring of pure and endless light,

All calm as it was bright;

And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,

Driven by the spheres

Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world

And all her train were hurled."

-Henry Vaughan

baby chick update

The chicks have moved into their next home...the dog crate.  Minus the dog.  They are growing so fast.

They have also been named:

 

Rosemary.

Chattanooga. 

I was off work just a bit early today and it was beautiful so I walked home part way, down along the boardwalk. A train went by.  I just had to sing:

"Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga choo-choo..." 

 

1 + 1: the rain barrel and the sweater and a branch

Sweaters are made one stitch at a time.  I'm at about 4 inches which would be a total of 5,600 stitches. 

Rain barrels can be filled one rain drop at a time.  I never got my rain barrel placed directly under the down spout.  It still managed to be filled up all the way to the top.  50 gallons of water.

Found in the garden (a baby conk).  One branch can be a home...

stepping outside

On Saturday morning I wanted to be somewhere before the buses started running.  I decided to walk downtown to catch the first bus that I could for the second half of my destination.  It felt good to walk.  I missed the bus.

I decided to walk the second half of my journey too.  This part of the walk I can do by walking along the trail that runs beside the bay.

Sometimes I regret that by not having a car, I can't go all the places that I think I might want to go.  But the truth is, I rarely went those places when I did have a car. 

And everytime I walk down along the edge of the water, it doesn't matter anymore.  Because this place is so special, and I love it so much, that it is usually enough....

on the first day of spring

A new bath mat.  The binding is made of scraps.  The orange print I found buried in a pile.  I think I had a purpose for it once upon a time.  The bottom layer is an old towel. 

Baby tomatoes.  I am especially pleased with these tomatoes as they are from seeds I saved.  Not exactly sure of the variety. It's a yellow cherry tomato.

 

Chicks!  The top is an Ameracucana, a breed that lays blue eggs.  The darker is a Barred rock. 

Happy Spring!

quietly protesting...

Riding the bus can be educational and thought provoking...

On Friday as I was waiting at the bus station a group of women came marching through the bus station chanting and waving signs. I thought about how I'm not good at that kind of protest. 

And then on the ride home I had a conversation with a neighbor about the state of the world, about whether protesting can make a difference?  And whether there was much hope for our world?  Big conversation for ten minutes with no answers.  

But it did make me decide what I really want right now is to be an optimistic voice of protest.   (I've been coming to this for awhile.)  Because I believe we live in a scary world.  There is a lot wrong.  But many of us have choices.  And it doesn't have to be hopeless.

So I need to add to my list of why I make things:  as a form of protest.   

My choice for today was to work in the garden.  To start the cycle of growing my own food again. 

It was such a hopeful thing to plant tomato seeds, and even better, some were seeds that I'd saved from my own plants.  Organic. Local. Heirloom. 

 

 

illusions and integrity

I had no illusions last night that I was going to bake the cookie dough,

and I didn't. 

And no illusions that this stitching is anything but functional (but that is it's own kind of beauty).  Lola, the chihuahua, has a bad habit of chewing holes in bedding.  I decided to weave a strip of fabric through a few holes and then stitch it all down.  It will hold, at least until she chews it up again. 

And it made me think of integrity in stitching.  Working towards wholeness.  It also reminded me of sock darning.

 

putting a few shirts to use

I like the back of my pillow as much as the front.  The back is cut from a blouse that was given to me.  Any shirt front makes a wonderful back for a pillow. 

The pillow form is also recycled/reclaimed:

 One or two more ways to recycle/up-cycle... depending on how you count.