n o d d y b o o m

overwhelmed but looking ahead :::

 
i'm still recovering from quite a full week.  tragically, a child passed at our school.  i am still contending with japan.  there was a birthday.  a silent auction.  i'm not quite myself.

it is always nature that comforts me and brings me back to a place of peace and calm during times that are overwhelming, tumultuous + emotional.

things that are keeping me sane:

this tutorial on making your own macrame hanging succulent garden.

these lovely terrarium images.

this inside garden diary.

this itty bitty farm blog.

this raw chocolate.

spring must finally have arrived, because i find myself tearing through garden books and seed catalogs.  we are also shifting a few things around in our garden.  the rabbit hutch has been moved and i am researching a way to either build a worm bin under it or have one near it.  bamboo is being planted.  the chicken coop i was dreaming of is sadly no longer available, so i am in the process of yet another search for the perfect chicken coop, but space has finally been made for it.  fabric has been laid out to make outdoor pillows.  i keep browsing the color collective blog for color design/palette ideas.

this year, i am thinking of planting lots of tomatoes (they always seem to do well and we like eating them), purple basil, cinderella pumpkins, lavender, dozens of strawberries, zucchini (even though i'm the only one who likes them), hollyhock + bush beans.  i thought of attempting a melon, but we've hardly ever had success with that.

our thornless blackberry vine still hasn't shown signs of fruit, but i'm going to fertilize it anyway and see what happens.

i'm going to take a long break after this post.  things have gotten quite busy at home and the family really needs my presence right now.  plus, i'm longing to make some changes and i need time to figure out exactly what those changes will be.  all good things, just different.

i wish you a happy spring and a happy week.

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a needle-felted dragon :::

sorry i've been so absent.  i had to finish this wool dragon for my son's class basket (they're doing a "my father's dragon" theme).

i can't believe february is gone already.  it's so weird.  here we are in march.  next week is marley's birthday.  she will be ten years old.  ten years old!  i am walking around dumbstruck.  

there are paper garlands to make, a dress to sew, a sweater to finish knitting...

so many good things.

i am aching to spend time outside, somewhere away from the city, and keep gazing at the happy campers site.  spring, where are you?  i am ready...

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craft wip + alternative lifestyle links :::

 
needlefelted dragon in progress (a project for our waldorf school's upcoming silent auction).

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worth a read:

the tyranny of entitlement:  about the false belief/idea of perpetual growth + how it's really a dead end (Ie:  living beyond the means of our planet until the culture collapses).  kind of an eye opener, but sort of a downer.  totally reversible, however, by switching to a simpler lifestyle (zen habits) + embracing the power of less.

and this great article about celebrating birthdays with less stuff.  apparently the woman who wrote the article (shannon hayes) has also written a book called "radical homemaker" all about women, some with masters degrees + PhD's, who are choosing home over career advancement + wives and husbands who "reject the false promise of endless paid labor to tend gardens and children and friendships".  love it.

finally, my husband sent me this great article about 8 alternatives to college which touches on the theory that sending your kids to college could potentially be a bad idea because:

1.  after 2 years 45% of students learn little to nothing

2.  after 4 years 36% of students learn almost nothing

3.  plus the cost of college is rising faster than inflation + healthcare costs.

anyway, james altucher has come up with a list of alternative things people between the ages of 18-23 can do with "the most vibrant, healthy years of their lives when they grow from being a child to an adult" BESIDES go to college.  you can read more here.

happy monday + valentines day!  i hope you get in some good quality time with your loved ones.

we might be diving back into amandas recipes again and making this.  it is sooo good.

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my version of amanda's awesome homemade granola bars :::

making your own granola bars is a good way to:

sneak extra nutrition into your diet (+ into your kids)

avoid unwanted additives that may exist in store-bought granola bars

load up on healthy proteins + fiber

get a quick dose of energy

use up the rest of the dry cereal that your kids wanted so badly and enjoyed for a bit but now they just won't touch even though it's still perfectly good (we are moving toward not buying/eating dry cereal for so many reasons - it's just not that healthy, it's loaded with sugar and other additives that you probably don't want or need, it comes in a lot of packaging - but i occasionally break down with cereal from the "health food store" for convenience' sake only to re-learn the lesson that buying it is not such a great idea when the family, again, eats half the box and then loses interest + i have to confront my guilt for buying it even though i know it's not such a great idea.  it's a process i'm working on and i'm in a better place with it today than i have been, especially knowing i can use the leftovers in these bars!)

that said, these are really easy to make + very delicious (and adaptable to what you happen to have in the cupboard).  plus we're all appreciating having a healthy, easy-to-grab-as-you-dart-out-the-door snack that's filling enough to get you to the next meal, full of energy + readily available.

i can't tell you how many cookbooks i have in my cupboard yet i keep going to amanda's blog for cooking inspiration.

anyway, here's: 

my version of amanda's awesome homemade granola bars

2 cups organic rolled oats

1/2 cup flax seed, milled 

1/4 cup amaranth

3/4 cup shelled sunflower seeds

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon good quality salt, like himalayan pink or celtic sea salt

 

1/2 cup brown sugar or agave nectar

1/2 cup local honey (great for allergies)

2 tsp molasses (or i used barley malt, 'cause that's what i had)

4 T coconut oil

2 tsp vanilla

4 T peanut butter (or almond butter)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

1.    combine the first 8 ingredients and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  toast at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden                  brown.  let cool 15 minutes.

2.    bring the next 4 ingredients to a simmer, stirring continuously.  stir in the vanilla + peanut or almond butter and cool for        2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3.    put the toasted ingredients in a large bowl and pour the liquid ingredients over it.  mix very well.  

4.    place parchment or wax paper in the rimmed baking sheet and butter the top side (coconut oil), then place the granola bar         mixture in the pan.  put another buttered sheet of paper, buttered side down, on top of the mixture and press down (you         can use a rolling pin or the flat bottom of a square container to make it tight, smooth + even).

5.    let set for 2-3 hours and cut into desired bar size.  makes about 20-24 bars.  package in an airtight container with wax         paper layered between the bars or package individually.  store in the freezer or fridge.  they keep really well and thaw very         quickly.  (really yummy frozen too!)

 

succulents in tea cups:::

griffin + marley received the sweetest little succulents as party favors months ago and i just re-potted them yesterday in vintage tea cups (they were outgrowing the teensy two inch plastic pots they came in and we have droves of vintage tea cups lying around so...).  they are sprucing up our kitchen table as i type.  i've never been great about caring for indoor plants but things have taken a turn for the better recently, perhaps because succulents are so darn easy to care for and thrive on neglect?. in any case, i've grown quite fond of these little plants and it sure does help during these dark winter months to bring a little green indoors.  more about succulents here and here oh + i just found this awesome online succulent store!  omg.  look at the mushroom topiaries ! ! !  

+ + oh and i just noticed that maya at urban organica did a marvelous succulent post and had to share.  enjoy!

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(holiday) recap three :::

more of the gifts that were made for family and friends this holiday season:  organic body scrub + body powder.  we got our recipes out of rosemary gladstar's book but  there are loads of recipes to be found around the internet.  just search for "organic body powder recipes", etc.  and you find things like this.

:)

food for thought as we make our way into the new year :

growing power

slow money

photo essay:  what the world eats

 

 

(holiday) recap two :::

hand+made dress (collage)

a dress i made for marley that i couldn't get a decent shot of, so...

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silliness.

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there are some beautiful end of the (last) year photo compilations here and here ( this one is a collage of an enormous amount of knitting that has been accomplished throughout the year ! ) and here and here.  it's really interesting to look back over the year's photos and try to put together one for each month.  interesting to look at your journey, what your focus was, how life unfolded.  i started to put something together myself, but then got overwhelmed by the sheer A M O U N T  of photos i've accumulated on my computer and how unorganized they are (some thing i plan to tackle this year...) so i stopped.  but i might make a second attempt when i begin the actual process of organizing, as i've promised myself i would starting next week.

:)

take care!

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rain :::

oh hi there.  my entire iphoto library exploded, so after a trip to the genius bar and an iphoto class at the apple store i am now hacking away at the 42,000 recovered photos, organizing and categorizing them.  it is quite a process, but i am so glad i am finally doing it!  i think this will finally lead to me getting a family photo album made.  perhaps in time for the holidays?  does anyone have any success stories they'd like to share about online photo-book publishing?  i've seen mac books and one made by lulu that was pretty cool, but that's it.  i'm so curious as to what all the different books look like and i'm picky, so if you know of anything cool, please do share.

it's going to take me a while to get back here regularly as i am currently re-thinking the way i do things (not to mention the time it takes to organize 42,000 photos) + my family needs me right now, so enjoy these photos of the lovely, cozy, bread-baking, pumpkin pie warm-out-of-the-oven-eating, hearty soup weather we are having.  i will see you as soon as i am able with updates on my progress.

happy crafting//baking + city farming and for those of you who are cave (city) dwellers like me, don't forget to get outside and get your vitamin d!

take care.

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these days

crobots

+

handspun that might turn into slippers...

there is the cutest class happening next month at the urban craft center that got me all excited about crocheting little (friendly) beasts.  classes are not in my forecast at the moment, however crocheting little beasts seems like something i can probably squeeze into my schedule regardless, as soon as i finish that quilt i've been working on.  and those crayon holders for griffin's class.  and maybe those thick slippers i'm longing to knit for myself, perhaps (and speaking of thick knitted slippers, look at these in the toast catalog). 

i wonder how everyone is settling into the last days of summer + first days/weeks of school before fall hits on the 22nd ( i think i have that date right).  i know for me, i've had to get a lot more organized with my time and have also had to make some big decisions yet again about what i can and can't do because we are busy, so there is a steady stream of things heading out the door to the local goodwill these days + a prioritizing and a narrowing down (ahem).  i've taken to writing some ideas in a journal, so they can exist somewhere if not in my reality at the moment, and that seems to work pretty well.  better than the lists i used to keep that just ended up stacked on my desk, in drawers, in books, on shelves and tucked away in random pockets in my car.

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also, can i please say how much i love netflix and instant streaming and wow, i had no idea how many interesting political and environmental documentaries there are out there in the world and where the heck have i been?  and boy, i really wish i didn't kill the battery on my laptop by leaving it plugged in all this time because my new favorite thing to do late at night when the kids are down is to work on projects and stream in all the interesting stuff i've not been watching while i was watching all the boring, uninteresting stuff on t.v. that's loaded with a bunch of crap and commercials etc. that i truly do not need to be allowing into my brain, and to do this, i need to move my laptop where i can see it from behind my spinning wheel and i'm finding that the battery hardly lasts an hour.  nothing an extension cord can't fix, but still. 

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this morning was a morning for two slices of toasted sourdough market bread smothered with butter, piping hot tea and poached eggs whilst drooling over the latest toast + home online catalog.  i'm particularly fond of the soft flannel hot water bottle cozies and all the photos of the french farm-looking breakfasts with washed linen napkins and hand blown tumblers that make me think of lazy sunday mornings when i was a student in paris and had time, on occasion, to sit around reading.  funny, that's what i'm doing this morning.  reading.  sipping tea.  only, i'm sneaking it in between all the other things i know i'm supposed to be doing, so the whole experience is layered with guilt, which can either make it that much more tantalizing, i suppose, or otherwise so much less so, depending on how one chooses to look at it. 

speaking of reading...

today, i have promised myself that i am going to bike down to that coffee shop i love so much and i am going to dive into that pile of parenting books i've recently acquired.  for some reason, i am unable to do this at home.  probably because there are a million other things that need tending to and i get distracted and keep putting it off, but no, i'm going, books in tow, so there are no excuses.  i need to read and re-read about active listening and letting go of power struggles (because, after all, i'm the adult and quite capable of walking away from such things, one would think),  and firm boundaries and the different loving forms of discipline that seem to work better for different ages.  yes.  i need to read about these things, because i need all the help that i can get and i want all the help that i can get.  i hope some of those books are gems. 

if not, there is always this site, which is pretty spectacular. 

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my girlfriend's daughter celebrates turning 11 tomorrow.  she has requested cards and envelopes and i looked at a few of my favorite stationary shops and found nothing and then i thought, what am i doing?  i have so many fun things right here at home i can put together for her!   so my eldest and i worked on these sweet gifts yesterday;  glassine envelopes filled with stars and stickers from here and library cards from here.

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