bee creative

the bee creative prayer flag

I make things (cook and craft and garden and nest) because I love the process of watching something move from being a piece, an individual thing, to a whole.  A transformation. But I also make things because when I can’t afford to buy things I like, I can usually afford to make them.  I think as our world changes, both financially and environmentally, more of us will have to be creative.  To find other ways, different paths to get the things we want and/or need.  I have faith that this can happen.   

So here’s a prayer flag to be creative.  A mixture of digital, of hand made.  I will hang this (in a slightly different format) out for the wind to whip around.  I post it here to go where it will.   

From the stash of trash:  old sheet, fabric scraps, piece of old map. 

first frost: the chilly chihuahua makes a comback

Thursday morning we had our first frost, just a light one. Friday and this morning-everything sparkles with an icy edge or blanket. 

32 degrees Fahrenheit both nights.  It was time to turn the heat on.

The heating goals for this year: 

• Put a curtain up on the stairway so that the heat doesn't rise up into the upstairs.  No need for heat up there.
• Make snakes for the  doors, especially the back one.
• Turn the heat on and off manually rather than letting the thermostat on the heater decide when to click on.  Unfortunately, the heater is in front of a door and every time the door is opened it makes the heat come on.  Now I'm wondering if I'll hear my dad say, "You'll wear the knob down."  He used to tease my brothers and I about opening and shutting doors and turning light switches on/off when we were children.  He said we'd wear them out.... 

The sun is just starting to come up high enough to catch the frost and make everything sparkle as if it was covered in glitter.  Magic.   

I know I'm going to be seeing a lot of this now too:

Inspire Me Thursday-a poem by... Rumi

For Inspire Me Thursday:

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.   When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.  Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”-
do not make any sense.”
-Rumi

quilting and recycling

With the change of the seasons I'm back to doing more sewing.  I'm working on two quilt projects, both recycling materials that I was given. 

For this project I'm sewing 6 inch pillows and stuffing them with down from a reclaimed comforter.  Because down tends to work it's way through fabric, I'm doing two layers of fabric. 

I'm machine piecing the squares but sewing the pillows together by hand.  I tried sewing the squares together but didn't really like the results. 

I decided on 6 inch squares for easy cutting.  It's the width of my ruler.   

Four squares down and 192 to go to reach the size I want. 

The squares are all being sewn with scraps and from the stash.  I'm working hard on using what's in the stash for projects that I'm working on, rather than thinking, "This might make a good bag.  I'll save it for a bit longer...." 

prayer flags- out in the wind

I finally got around to hanging up the prayer flags that were finished.  It was rather difficult to put them out into the elements where they will get rained on and will fade away.  And yet that was where they were meant to be. 

The one closest (on the left hand side) is the one I did over.  I like the cleaner look.  These were all done on the computer digitally and then printed on printer ready fabric.

Although I was really happy with the results, as I do more I will probably draw/write with markers or crayons, print with stamps, or silkscreen on white muslin.

this week's harvest

I have grapes!  There are a fair amount of green grapes mixed into the clusters, but given the weather forecast, I decided to pick about half of what what on the plants.  The other half I left to see if they would ripen a bit more.  There were also a few ripe cherry tomatoes, a lot of green tomatoes, two green beans, a handful of autumn raspberries and a few carrots. 

Since I seemed to have a handful of this and that, minestrone was the meal of choice tonight.  I used local cranberry beans, an onion and some zucchini from the farmer's market; carrot, the green beans, chard, garlic, herbs and a few tomatoes from my garden, plus a small handful of pasta and a little olive oil.  Oh, and a little cheese of course. 

buy sustainably: the pledge

Once upon a time I had a list on my chalkboard.  It said:  "Do you really need it?  Can it be bought used?  Is it local?  Is it sustainable?" 

I'm posting those questions again for a challenge at One Green Generation. The challenge asks :  "Do you really need it?  If so buy it locally.  Buy it fair trade.  Buy it green.  Buy it to last." 

These are the guidelines I've used for shopping for several years now.  Probably for longer than that because for many things, I actually like them best old or from my family (I've bought 4 new furniture items in my life).  So I'm really not making a new pledge here, just adding my support to the cause and pledging to continue these shopping habits.   

So the question I have to ask myself is, "Why did I buy that coffee mug at the farmer's market today?"  I didn't really need another coffee cup, I just really liked this one.  The answer for me is that sometimes, within the bounds of the budget, I think we need to buy things we love.  It's part of sustaining our souls. And since it meets the other criteria of my shopping rules, well, I feel just fine about this purchase. Especially since I had a gift certificate for the farmer's market as a reward for riding the bus so much. 

Inspire Me Thursday-Paper cuts

Inspire Me Thursday's prompt this week was a tough one.  I love paper cuts, but wasn't sure that I could create something that I wanted to share.  And then I reminded myself to keep it simple...

recycled materials:  paper from my "stash of trash."