madam0wl

Mighty Oat Straw Brew, ha ha

2009-11-06T05:30:00.006-05:00

Get it? Brouhaha?

Anyway, it is only Day 4, no 5, ack! of NaNoWriMo and after a good start on Day 1, I'm already WAY behind, trembling behind a teetering wall of writer's blocks. Really, I think I'm still a bit timid of my story and just feeling the whole thing up too much- when basically I should just relax and let it flow. Quantity vs quality is the motto... While I work up the courage to do that, I thought I'd at least sit down and write something, anything, so why not procrastinate with a blog post?

Let's talk about tea. I've never in my life been a tea drinker. Probably because no one in my family drank a lot of tea? Oh wait, I do remember mom putting a big jug of sun tea out to brew on top of the cistern during childhood summers in Iowa. I guess Dad drank that, because I sure didn't. Yuck. Tea? Are you crazy, dirt water? My friend Chris always had iced tea in her fridge when I hung out over there, her mom's habit passed onto to her daughter? My next tea experience might be trying out hot tea at Szechwan Chinese Restaurant in Council Bluffs with Cathy, probably late 80s, after getting her hair permed and highlighted. It wasn't bad, but I drank it more for the novelty of it. After that I guess it shoots forward to meeting Stew and getting to know his mom, who drank "sweet tea." What the hell was that? Iced tea with a shit load of sugar in it. And he drank it too? Wait a minute, I got engaged to this guy? Sweet tea is definitely a southern thing and I soon learned that when traveling, you know you're in the south when sweet tea is on the drink menu alongside the ambiguous "coke" -oh, and when you start seeing Bojangles restaurants everywhere. By the way, are the Hardee's anywhere else in the world advertising/selling "Fried Bologna Biscuit Sandwiches"? I mean, really.

Needless to say, once married, I didn't keep a jug of sweet tea in the fridge for Stew. If he wanted it, he had to wait until he could order it at restaurants. And if not dining down south, if he asked nicely, I'd pass him 4 packets of Splenda. I'd never even considered brewing myself tea. Coffee please, straight up. And really my coffee habit didn't start until I was working full-time after college. The Germans and other Europeans in that office sure liked their coffee, several times a day. But that is another story. Like I was saying, me = not a tea drinker. Until about a month or so ago.

Late this summer I got an email from my fellow stay-at-home BFF in which she mentioned reading on the internet about "oatstraw tea and how it is supposed to be as relaxing as taking a Xanax." This piqued my interest. I've never taken Xanax, but don't tempt me. So hey, a tea? Really? Enter my friend google, who says, yep, look at all these links I can show you! To summarize, first I learned that the Latin name for oat straw is "Avena sativa" (well that is what they the called just plain oats). Wait, like the oats my dad usually grew a few acres of each year? That after the combine went through, eventually got baled and stacked in our barn? Yes, probably. Oat straw harvested as an "herb" is typically made up of the green stalks, leaves AND sometimes the grain itself is included.

Okay, so how does one make tea out of it, and why?

Starting with the WHY first, I'll list some of the nutrients found in oat straw: calcium; magnesium; B-complex vitamins; silicia; calcium; flavones; saponins; and Vitamin A. Never one to really know/care too much about nutrition stuff other than how to read a label, I let the internet inform me how the combo of all these was good for a person. First off, the calcium is pretty cool- about 300 mg per cup. That is a big bonus for those of us who only drink milk if it is brown or at the bottom of a cereal bowl. Next, and I suppose this is where the whole Xanax thing comes in, is that oat straw tea is a nervine, meaning that it "acts therapeutically upon the nerves, particularly in the sense of a sedative that serves to calm ruffled nerves." A few of the online articles even tout the tea as a libido enhancer and a boost to the immune system. Christ, can it do no wrong? Apparently not, as I haven't seen anything negative come up on it. It IS a diuretic, but so is beer.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that all these wonderful things don't happen instantaneously. Like, drink one steaming mug of it and then KAPOW! Strong bones! Calm nerves! Hot & horny! No, slow down partner. Almost all of the info I found said that it needs to be enjoyed regularly on a daily basis (one said 3 cups maximum, but another said as much as you wanted) and that it could take several weeks to reap the benefits, said to be long lasting.

Okay, so how do you make it? Well, after reading all those links, I also became an amateur expert on how one makes loose leaf tea, since most included a brief "how to" bit at the end. Which I will provide as well. With pictures!

First, where did I get it? Again the internet came through for me, and I ended up buying it online. One of the main reasons for this is that I wanted to use some of my PayPal virtual pocket money AND because really, when was I going to have time to go out looking for a hippie herbal store? They don't stock oat straw at WalMart people. So I ended up buying from an eBay store, "Our 4 Corners," which I selected because they had tons of good feedback, a huge selection of nicely priced bulk herbs and reasonable shipping/handling fees. I bought their 1 lb loose Oat Straw CUT/Sifted-Green-Organic. By the way, I went with loose variety because of the recipes I'd seen for preparing it. Plus there seemed to be only a few places that sold it in tea bags, and the price had been marked up a LOT.

I was pleasantly surprised when only 4 business days later, my bagged & boxed 1 lb bag arrived via Priority Mail, with Ames, Iowa listed as the return address! The eBay store "Our 4 Corners" is based out of Michigan, but apparently buys in bulk and sometimes ships directly from AmeriHerb Inc., based out of in Ames.

Upon opening the heavy duty blue bag, the scent that wafted out immediately brought back childhood memories of... well, here is how I described it when I tweeted later that day, "brewed Oat Straw tea for first time today; smelled like farmgirl hay chores; looked like the ruffage that fell out of our socks after."

My first attempt was to do a simple infusion by putting about 3 teaspoons of the herb in a mason jar and then pouring 8 oz of boiling water over it. I let it sit about 10 minutes and then strained it into another glass to drink. First impression was similar to what I'd seen someone else say online, that it had a "mild sweet grassy taste" or simply, it tasted like it looked, greenish brown. To my surprise, it didn't taste like the sips of nasty Lipton tea or super sweet stuff I'd reluctantly tried before. I actually liked the mild grassy taste. Plus, hey I knew it was good for me, so that might have helped. Or maybe after drinking coffee and wine my palate is no longer delicate, who knows.

That evening I was excited to get an overnight infusion started. After some rough calculations, I scooped a heaping cup (about 1 oz?) of the herb into a 1.5 liter sealable canister and filled it with boiling water. The next morning I strained it into a quart container and then poured myself another mug which I heated up for about 1 min in the microwave. I stored the quart container in the fridge for later. The color was darker than my first mug infusion, but it still tasted okay to me, maybe a bit more full flavored? The reheated tea was good, and yes somewhat calming... the comfort of it could almost pass as a substitute for my morning coffee. I'm still working on weaning myself off caffeine, so usually I'll have about one mug of coffee and now instead of pouring a second, I'll heat up some tea.

I started making it every night, and eventually one afternoon I tried it as "iced tea" which was good too, especially with a squirt of lemon juice in it. Further modifications I made were to my process... I'd been boiling the water in a sauce pan and straining with the same flat strainer tool I use when making Mac 'n Cheese. Enter a new teapot, a tea strainer, a 2 quart container, and now I was officially a tea drinker.

And wouldn't you know it, Stew started drinking it too, giving me shit about how we finally had tea in the fridge now. I didn't mind sharing, but started planning ahead. The overnight infusions usually lasted about a day. So with two of us drinking it, I started letting some sit out "infusing" during the day as well, i.e. making a double batch every other day or so. One pound at that kind of usage lasted about two weeks.

When it came time to reorder, we did some more calculations, figuring in the price of the bulk herb and the shipping/handling. The actual cost per cup was pretty cheap, like under 50¢! So when I made the next order, I bought 5 lb. I used "Our 4 Corners" again, but this time ordered through their direct web store. I had initially tried to contact AmeriHerb Inc. about ordering directly from them, but my call and email were not returned. I could have followed up, but decided I'd stick with "Our 4 Corners" who had answered two of my email questions fairly quickly and pleasantly. Our 5 lb arrived super fast, like within the same week, and so far has lasted two months, with 1 lb remaining.

I slacked off drinking it for a while, which one site even recommends you do, like take a 5 day break, but mine was more like an unintentional two weeks. Now looking back, it seems like once I slacked off I soon had trouble fighting off an onslaught of cold symptoms. This past week I started drinking it throughout the day again (it is especially nice to drink if you are stuffed up or have a scratchy cough), and I'm now finally starting to feel better. Maybe it really does boost your immune system.

So I heartily recommend trying it out. Is it like Xanax? Well, I wouldn't know, but yes I think it does sort of chill a person out and even if that is a placebo effect, I'll take it. And we'll keep the libido discoveries to ourselves, thank you. ;) Now I'm even thinking of ordering a pound of some other herb to mix in with it. I'm not sure which one yet, I need to do some more research. Any (legal) recommendations? Also I'm wondering what could be done with the leaves after the infusion. I suppose if we composted we could throw in with that.

FYI - This post, up to this point, contained 1717 words, which is about 100 more than the daily goal for NaNoWriMo. See, that wasn't that hard was it? Actually it was- I started writing this the night of the 4th, and had to sit down to work on it twice throughout the day on the 5th. Finally getting it pretty much completed after 1.5 hrs of mostly uninterrupted time, while Milo was napping and the older two were playing "fort." Then I had to make dinner, do dishes, referee homework and read stories... and now I'm finally ready to post, after close to another hour used of precious bedtime quiet. How do all you writers who also blog and/or have kids, do it?

PS - Since time and future posts may be slim, and really it isn't worth a post in itself, I want to share one other creative outlet I've been utilizing lately... here is a photo sampling of doodled napkins I've sent in Wiley's lunches so far this school year. Have a good day y'all, Happy Friday, and do your best!

PPS - That was over 2000 words total! Why again didn't I do NaBloPoMo instead?

Month of Miscellaneous Interests

2009-10-09T08:37:00.019-04:00

Wow, another month flew by. Actually this whole year seems to have gone by pretty damn fast.

Let's see, what have I been doing since that last post?

Various things that I've considered posting but just never got around to. So how about some bullet points & pictures?

Drinking tea: After BFF Brenda email-mentioned that "oat straw tea" has been touted as nature's Xanax, I looked into it and ordered some online. I've never been much of a tea drinker, but have enjoyed this little experiment so far. A more informative "review & how to" type post is forthcoming, eventually.

Reading: Gabaldon's latest Jaime & Claire book came out on Sept. 22nd, and a couple months ago I'd made it a goal to reread the series. I zipped through the first 3 pretty quickly but got bogged down in the 4th (but eventually finished it) and completely hit a wall trying to get past the first couple chapters of the 5th. Plus I seemed to forget there was a 6th that came out in 2005, and upon that discovery, realized I have something like 2000 pages to read before I can start the new one. Might be a while though, because I seem to have moved out of my reading phase for the moment.

Doodling: I designed and submitted two more repeated fabric designs into Spoonflower's "Fabric of the Week" contest. They've started implementing themes now, which is more inspiring to me, as I sometimes need a prompt to start working on something. My "leaves" design was basically the only non-Hallmarky entry in their Halloween theme, and I think it ended up placing somewhere in the middle of the group. Thanks to those who voted.

Next up was a "spoons & flowers" theme for which I emptied our kitchen drawers, photographed our spoons, and then played with them in Photoshop to make some funky "spoon flowers." This one had to make it through a semi-final round, in which it placed 9th out of 70 entries! It stayed a favorite in the finals, respectfully ending in 5th out of 16. I ordered a "fat quarter" of this one printed on quilting weight fabric and it came in the mail yesterday, so we'll see if I ever make anything with it. Still fun though, and thanks again to voters.

The current week's theme is "numbers" and I did enter a design again, but I purposefully only gave myself a couple hours to design & submit, resulting in it being kind of rough draft and conceptual as an experiment. They aren't sharing the realtime voting results this week though, so I can't watch as it likely flounders amongst the cute scattered numeric font competition. Bummer. Stew says the next time I enter I should intentionally design something cutesy to see what happens, and I was like "you mean, sellout?" Ha ha. Differing tastes in design and "style" are interesting to me, so I'm not bothered too much that I haven't designed any winners... :) What is cooler to me is the fact that Spoonflower just made it possible to purchase fabric printed with other people's designs... so I've listed for sale my watches and spoon flowers and will probably offer more eventually. The 10% commission won't mean early retirement, but like selling vintage on etsy, it could happily add to the 'ole virtual pocketbook (PayPal).
Sewing/Mending: Spurred on by the necessity of sewing on Wiley's Cub Scout badges, I've since dug out a few things from the mending pile and holy shit, actually mended them. Possibly I'm entering a little "hand sewing" renaissance, and other than mending, might start a small patchwork type project that I can work on while we wait outside the school to pick up Wiley (about 40 minutes everyday).

Enjoying music: In the past month or so I've used up the iTunes gift certificates we'd bought off our cousin by downloading several albums and burned a few CDs to listen to in the car. My old brick of a First Generation iPod got unearthed recently and I've been using it to tune into a mix of both old and new stuff as a way to drown out the boys when they get rowdy during the witching hours.

As my Aunt-inlaw Linda wisely advises, with boys at play, the best thing is to just let them work things out and to only be concerned when someone comes up to you bleeding. The only way I'm capable of doing that is by zoning out in my own little world, which really isn't all that hard for me to do, especially if I'm grooving to my own personal soundtrack. Recent downloads = Carbon Leaf's "Nothing Rhymes with Woman" and "Ether-Electrified Porch Music" albums; Stephen K & the Sixers "The Bear"; Juno movie soundtrack; Whip It movie soundtrack; Tepetricy; Fever Ray; and Dawn Landes.

Stew and I also got to go on another "live music" date night this week, venturing out to Carrboro, NC on Tuesday night to catch a stop on the "Bear Rhymes with Woman" tour featuring Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers & Carbon Leaf. We got there early enough to enjoy dinner & beers at a conveniently located BBQ joint (The Q Shack) and then to snag a nice back wall, raised corner table spot at the venue, Cat's Cradle. The environment wasn't as conducive to point-n-shoot photography as was the Kid Rock show, but the experience was WAY more enjoyable. We had a good time, worthy of the late night driving and Stew even said it was one of his top concert experiences. On the way out, he got to shake hands with one of Carbon Leaf's guitarists, the longhaired dude, Terry, who said "Thanks for coming." Cool. Here is what I wore; where we sat; and what we saw:

Next month I've signed up to participate in NaNoWriMo, a project/pursuit I've always thought would be fun but never saw anyone mention until like the middle of November when it is basically too late to start. The premise is that during the month of November, you challenge yourself to write a 50,000 word (like 175 page) novel. They encourage quantity over quality and suggest you not even edit while you write, just churn it out. Before November 1st it is okay prep by working out an outline or doing character sketches. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to write about, but even if it ends up being a trashy romance, I'm excited.

Now I need to back-up some files and clean up my laptop, because somewhere in the process of working on images for this post I apparently ran my hard drive space to down to the bare minimum. Hate when that happens. And yes, it has happened before, I'm a pack rat digitally too...

Oh yeah, and I've got laundry to put away...

So you probably won't see anything here until next month! :)

Swap-o-Rama-Rama in Raleigh

2009-09-06T08:06:00.004-04:00

During the past few years of web surfing, I've seen clothing swaps mentioned several times. Whether it is a small affair held as a house party, or a larger event, it always seemed like a fun thing to do. The essence of it being that you bring a bag of unwanted clothing, and you leave with a bag of "new" stuff to add to your wardrobe. Like a "by the pound" thrift store, only with your own donation of clothing serving as your payment. A thrifty way to add more secondhand items to your wardrobe.

This Labor Day weekend I finally had a chance to attend a licenced Swap-o-Rama-Rama event, held on Saturday in downtown Raleigh, NC. Fortunately the location was in a rentable room at a kid's playplace, ala Marbles Museum. So Stew took the three boys in to play and I took my big green bag of clothes in to the swap.

Armed with my bag and a $10 donation (the producer of this swap was a nonprofit in Durham, The Scrap Exchange, where I totally want to go someday, Wiley would LOVE it), I stepped into the "Zanzibar Room" with little apprehension. I made my way in, making sure I got my big green bag back after it was emptied, and checked out some of the items up for raffle. Eventually I entered my raffle ticket (free with admission) in for a child's instrument set, complete with tambourine. I never win anything, but I wasn't required to be there to win, so what the hell. Next I headed over to the tables of donated clothing. After a few minutes of browsing, it made me smile to see one of the volunteers/workers wearing a funky 70s floral polyester top I'd brought, and then I began seeing more of my own donation added to the piles.

At first I was like "hmmm, do I really need any of this other stuff?" But then that whole, "Hey, REUSE/SWAP!" mentality settled in, and I started envisioning possibilities. A lemon yellow spandex tank top? No, but I could probably wear it for yoga/lounge clothes, or as a layer in a colorful outfit. An 80s pink sleeveless tank with a button-up neckline placket? No, but I could take it over to a "DIY Station" and paint the buttons orange. Plus I made sure to pick up one thing for each of the boys and something for Stew; an aquamarine LL Bean polo shirt for Stew (to enhance his eyes), a navy blue long sleeve t-shirt for Wiley (same), a stripe-y top for Cyrus, and a cute yellow ringer-tee w/ a motorcycle print for Milo.

After an hour of browsing, snagging and painting, I called Stew. He was still sane watching with the kids, who were apparently having a ball playing at the museum. He encouraged me to stay longer if I wanted to.

So I waited for my buttons to dry and circulated through the tables again, a fresh layer of clothes mixed in. Happily I noticed very few of my own donated items still remaining.

Also I started looking about at the other swappers. First to approach me was a woman who admired my big green bag. She had picked up a big pair of flannel PJ pants and asked one of the sewers at a DIY station to make a similar big bag out of the pants. Then I saw a young teenage girl wearing a brightly printed pair of flats from Grandma Long's collection. Earlier I'd seen a young miss wearing the moss green pair of Bitten flats I'd only worn once. Finally I saw that the nice lady that had liked my bag was wearing a pair of sandals I'd brought. The bag she'd commissioned was completed so I asked her to pose for a photo. She gave me her business card and asked me to email her the photo. Networkin' it yo.

Later as I was sitting to the side gazing into my big bag, another woman commented me on it, and I shared what I knew of its history. It came from Stew's side of the family, passed down to me by his Aunt who had said someone in the family(?) had been a fashion sales rep and had used it to carry around product samples to different vendor meetings. The woman then shared that her booth was promoting the "ReTails Thrift Shop." All the shop's proceeds go to support "THE $20 FIX," animalkind.org's targeted spay/neuter assistance program that enables low-income pet owners to spay/neuter their pets. Yay, a new thrift shop to check out the next time I'm in the northeast Raleigh area.

I circulated one more time, stashing a few more things into my big green bag. Finally, once my paint was dry, I called Stew one more time and then made my goodbyes. I headed out to meet the boys in the foyer of the museum. We swang through the gift shop, and as the boys had behaved well, we let them each buy a smallish toy.

Overall it was a lovely Saturday afternoon trip into Raleigh and we'll definitely do either a swap or Marbles Museum again.

Here is what I wore, completed by a skinny grommeted black belt that I "swapped" and put on while browsing:

To Amy, With Love

2009-08-05T01:26:00.006-04:00

I've mentioned "heartbreaking loss" briefly before and now I'll share.

I have two older sisters. I love them both dearly.

But one has passed away, and every so often, outside of my own thoughts, I'm reminded of the loss.

You know, like when someone, maybe a doctor, asks you to list your siblings?... What do you say?

I have two older sisters.

No.

I had two older sisters.

No.

I have one living sister...

That was how I phrased it most recently. The doctor took pause, then quietly asked, "and how did the other pass?"

I usually abbreviate; a car accident.

8/5/09 will be the 13th anniversary. Thirteen years later and I'm still grasping for words. How to share her.

Now I've got a "blog" and I'm pretty sure she would have had one too. I've posted older writings before, and she always loved to read what I had to say... so I'll share once more.

My version. Unedited (pulled from a floppy disk a few years ago no less! OK - I've added scanned photos this time, and maybe a word change here or there). But otherwise, un-abbreviated.

What I wrote for an English class my Senior year in college ('98), when the pain was still fresh...

“On Her Way to San Jose”

My oldest sister matured into a photographer and delighted in taking my picture. She also took pictures of clouds, strange pieces of daily life, and Barry Manilow. She uprooted to move to California two summers ago to focus on her art. I often picture her there, but the thing is, she isn’t.

I had turned 21, finally beginning somewhat of a mature life that resembled hers. I had been introduced into her circle of friends years before, and I had just started to feel more at ease around them; more grown up. For a spell during my childhood, Amy had pretended I didn’t exist. To her, I was a whiny little brat who stole away the attention of our mother. We later joked about it being the cause for a breakdown I would surely have sometime in my old age.

Amy moved out of our country home after high school. Flunking out of a college in Missouri brought her back. It seemed like during that stint in college she was home often, even though it was a 3 hour drive. Mom would do her laundry. Amy didn’t know what she wanted to do, so college wasn’t interesting. After a short stay at home, she moved about 30 minutes away, into the city. She supported herself with an Accounting job at the city paper, even though she had flunked Accounting in high school.

It sounds as if she was a stupid flunk-out. She wasn’t. She was brilliant, always reading. I have memories of her sitting in a big brown easy chair, flipping through novels, newspapers and magazines, soaking them up, analyzing. She kicked ass at Trivial Pursuit and Rubick’s Cube. Hollywood mesmerized her, and she knew six degrees to any obscure actor, not just Kevin Bacon.

Amy’s next move took her a bit further west, across the Missouri river and into Omaha, Nebraska. Here she got another cubicle job for more pay and quickly became the most popular girl in the department. Cathy and I would go visit her. She always wanted to show us off, as we were often characters she included in her witty banter. Her colleagues seemed to me like an elusive Brat Pack, always cracking inside jokes and coming up with crazy catch phrases. At this point I was driving our grandmother’s old Dodge Omni, and evolving into something of a personality myself. I was excelling in high school like my sisters, and following in their footsteps by joining the high school band and gaining that modest popularity that geeks can achieve. I played saxophone in the jazz band, like Amy had.

She and I developed similar interests. I would drive into Omaha and crash at her apartment. We would see movies, go out to eat, or just hang around playing with her computer. The internet was new and she had an account with Prodigy, an early internet provider. She would post messages in the Barry Manilow BBS and I would
participate in juvenile “slamming” in the alternative music ones. We would compare our posted messages and compliment each other’s witty words. Then we would laugh at the enormous response our messages would garner.

Amy was an avid Barry Manilow concert fan and became a talented entertainment photographer. Cathy and I would go to concerts with her and sit in the front row, half embarrassed and half proud of the way our older sister would cut loose, hooting and hollering between snaps of her Pentax. She had tons of “Barry friends” from all over the country who admired her photos. I would fall asleep on her couch, listening to her pace back and forth on the phone, discussing plane and concert ticket transactions. She talked loud and fast on the phone, allowing herself time to listen with just as much energy.

Somewhere between work and her social life (she would’ve said “lack of social life”), school became a priority. This time she knew what she wanted, and dabbled in History, English, and Journalism before focusing on Photography. She had a crush on one of her work colleagues who was also going to school with her for photography. They had great chemistry and it was reflected in the work that was produced from their shared studio and darkroom schedules.

When my high school graduation neared, I asked her take my senior pictures. She jumped at the chance. We spent a day on the farm. Walking around looking for good natural light and backdrops. We would stop and she would take about 10 shots. It felt so natural, like there wasn’t a camera between us. She would prompt me to smile and tell me if I looked fake. Of course she was always making me laugh. She was raunchy and hilarious. She would tell me I was beautiful. And through her lens I was, for what seemed like the first time.

I moved away to college and we began writing back and forth, via email and snail mail. Her letters and email were so alive! She phrased things bravely and poignantly. She would beg me to write back. “Did I mention, I want to move to LA???? Write me or lose that creative edge... Ame” She loved my writing, although I think it paled in comparison to hers. We inspired each other creatively. She lived vicariously through my funky fashion sense, party scenes, and freshman sexual escapades. We would compare class schedules and help each other study Art History during late night phone calls. When I was home on break she would invite me over to bleach her hair. I would use what was left of the bleach to put streaks in mine. We matched.

Amy was always happy to be with family and friends. She would hug us all, hello and goodbye and in between. Her conversation enlivened a room. She was blooming in her late twenties and we were all encouraging it. When she decided to move away, to California, no one was surprised. She had a hard time deciding things, especially major life changes. But when she made one, she stuck with it. We all helped her move out of her apartment into temporary living quarters with Cathy and her roommate, a family friend, Laura. She took about a month to finalize things and then we were summoned to help her move.

My boyfriend Stew (who she completely approved of), Cathy, Laura and I were to there to help her pack up her small car and a rented minivan. We were all going to drive her west to San Jose, making a stop in Lake Tahoe, one of her most favorite spots in the world. It was going to be grand. A road trip! We were humming bars from “Do you know the way to San Jose?”

We packed until midnight or 1 a.m. and then started getting ready to drive. Everyone had slept at one point or another and we were energized, ready to hit the road. Before we pulled away from the curb she had us all get into a group hug, and then took a picture of the circle our feet made and a few parting shots. Cathy, Stew and I took the lead in the minivan, with Amy and Laura in her small two-door tailing us. It was lightly raining when we got out of city limits onto the interstate, and then it began to pour.

There seemed to be a bit of a distance between our cars and we slowed down to catch sight of her lights in our mirrors. We passed through a spot of road construction where the eastbound and westbound traffic were slowed and merged into two-way traffic. We lost sight of her lights once again when we were out of the construction and pulled off to the side to wait. A semi passed and maybe another car. We started to worry when no more headlights came from behind us. Just as we headed out to find a spot to turn around we got a call on the cellular phone. There had been an accident. They had both been thrown from the car, even with seat belts on. A witness with a cellular phone told us that Laura was conscious and that Amy knew her name. He said that it was “bad.”

By the time we got across the median, the traffic eastbound was starting to back up. We were at a stand still and couldn’t see anything but cars for a mile. Stew got out and ran up the road in the rain. Cathy and I started to panic. We saw an ambulance zoom by and then police. Stew came slowly back, drenched. He had seen them put into ambulances and asked a police officer where they had been taken. We had to turn the minivan around and backtrack to get back onto the interstate, into the city, towards the hospital. I was trying to be optimistic. I don’t remember if I was praying or what, but it was some form of complete concentration on one hope in the whole world. She’ll be okay. She’ll be okay. She’ll be okay.

We were led into a private room off from the waiting area. A box of tissues and blankets were brought in. Our parents had been called and were on their way. After about 10 minutes, two doctors came in and told us that there had been nothing they could do. She had been given CPR from the scene, but extensive internal injuries had taken her life.

We had been crying when they entered and now we were weeping uncontrollably. There was disbelief. We were on our way west damn it! We had to get back on the road! But there was no more Amy and no more reason to go. Our parents arrived and we had to tell them. My father, who I’d only seen cry once before, broke into tears, saying her name over and over again. My mother sat calmly and went to see the body when the doctors came back. She returned and told us that Amy had looked peaceful. It was when the nurse came in with Amy’s watch and jewelry that mom fell apart. We drove back to the apartment in the rented van, packed full with her things, in silence broken by sobs.

Laura had survived with a bad head wound from hitting the windshield. She had been taken to another hospital. It wasn’t until early morning when her parents brought her to us. She was in shock but gave us some details. They had been cranking Melissa Etheridge and eating Vanilla Wafers. They had slowed down when the heavy rain hit and Amy was having to fight the water pulling at the tires as she merged into two-way traffic due to the construction. She told Laura it would be okay, and then suddenly they were swerving. A four wheel drive vehicle heading east hit them, tearing the driver’s side door away, pulling the small car in half.

I strived to get an internship in New York City the following summer. Amy would have been behind me 100 percent in the flesh, and I know she was in spirit. She loved the Big Apple and knew one of us was destined for it. I walked around the city looking at it through her eyes, trying to find angles she would have photographed. At the Museum of Modern Art I stood in front of black and white photography exhibits that could have been hers. I visited places she had told me about, like Radio City Music Hall and the New York Public Library. She loved those huge lions at the entrance so I sat on one and wrote to her in my journal.

I have surrounded myself with pieces of her life. Photographs, pillows, stationary, and trinkets that are treasures now. It has been about two years, and I still cry off and on, but not so much anymore. I can feel her with me, hugging me, egging me on. Whenever I am on long road trips I think of her as my Patron Saint of Travel.

I am not extremely religious and neither was she, but I feel as though her aura surrounds me, and all those who she touched in one way or another. I write to her in my journal, sorting things out and bragging about achievements. She still inspires me. She had favored the phrases, “Carpe Diem” and “Fuck It” and I try to live by both.

I keep her in my back pocket where a Sunday School teacher once told me Jesus was supposed to be. Ha ha, remember that from CCD? This way, she is with me as I submit poetry for publication, or work on my portfolio with her art tools. She is with me as I skip a class to enjoy the spring weather with a walk through the woods. She is with me as I make plans for my fame and fortune. She’ll be with me as I bloom into my late twenties, and she’ll help me on the way to my “San Jose.”

Miss you Amy (7/16/1968 - 8/5/1996)

Love,
Sandy

Quick (re)Fashion - Southern Rock Frock

2009-07-25T10:52:00.004-04:00

For some reason a few nights ago I dreamed about cutting up some shoes and a dress. The shoes were my oldest pair of Chuck Taylors, black high-top ones, now faded to gray and beat to hell, that I have had since high school. The dress was a thrifted "Erika Collection" brand from last fall, and even though I liked the grayscale vertical mixed print (reminds me of a saddle blanket), I had only worn it as an under layer "skirt" due to the bodice being pretty snug.

In my dream I'd envisioned "summerizing" the shoes and wearing them with the dress, converted to a sundress with cute bow-tied strappy shoulder ties.

However after I'd snipped the upper part off of the dress (from armpit up) and tried it on, the remaining bodice was still too tight, like unsightly tube top spillage ya know? I didn't give up though. Possibly I could have revised my plans by slashing open the bust darts and inserting thicker straps instead of thin ties, but I was short on time so I improvised.

For fabric to make the "straps" with, I had cut off about 9 inches from the length of the dress, and then pulled that section's side seams apart for two pieces of approximately the same width. Faced with my strap quandary, I played around with those pieces as they were and liked how they looked keeping them wide and using them as fluttery sleeves instead.

The only sewing I did was to folded-edge hem all my cut lines and then sew the "sleeves" to the waist from the side seam in and then up their off center fronts. In the back there wasn't enough length left to overlap down to the waist, so I just shortened them and sewed to the top of the back bodice as I would have a strap.

The dress had its own self belt ties at the side seams which I left intact but bow-tied them in front along with a black strappy tie from another secondhand dress. This added some visual interest plus covered some of my wonky sewing at the waist. For about an hour of work I thought it turned out pretty good and will be able to wear the dress a lot more now.

It was good to get the 'ole sewing machine out for a quickie. Admittedly my craftsmanship wasn't the best, but at least I hemmed and tied all my knots. Were I to do it again, I'd try to leave an inch or so more length, my slip started showing toward the end of the night. :)

Not to forget the shoes... in high school I had converted a pair of white low-tops to be open toe slip-ons by: cutting the upper heel off; cutting the tongue out; and carving the rubber shell toe off. I've worn them more that way than I ever would have as the original low-tops, and have gotten many compliments on them which is fun. I'd recently started wearing them again which may have been why I had "summer chucks" on my mind for this project.

I knew I'd thrown my old black ones in a keepsake box during the move. In a stroke of luck I was able to find them (on the shelf above the water heater in the coat closet of course, where else?). The poor things were so worn out I didn't feel bad about ripping the tongues out and cutting the shell toes off. I'm pretty sure I had worn these for both of my restaurant kitchen slave jobs, so sweat & floor grease/grime had weakened the canvas fabric in several areas already. Airy AND authentically vintaged! I left the high-top & heel area intact this time, hoping to achieve a lace-up sandal look. I'll probably get several more wears out of these babies now, at least until the soles fall off.

So where did I wear this? Stew and I went to the Kid Rock & Lynyrd Skynyrd show in Raleigh last night, our first date night in a while.

We chilled on the back lawn and had fun people watching...

Here is our view during the opening act. About two hours later it was packed, a fight broke out to the right of us, and we had to stand to see anything other than butts.

All that work on my shoes was for naught...

Like the girl on the left below, I totally forgot to wear my cowboy boots!

See I wasn't the only crazy chick there in a skirt/dress, I just missed the boot memo, duh.

Stew doesn't own any black socks, white wife beater tanks, or plaid shorts... So he was totally dressed wrong too. Plus no tattoos to show off (not on his arms & back at least). By the way, Stew decrees that it is totally lame to buy a concert t-shirt and then wear it that night. Also he thinks blasting the albums of the concert artists in the parking lot while you tailgate is overkill too. Just FYI. :)

A few more crowd shots... I love people watching! Especially in the south :)

We left after like 4 or 5 Kid Rock "songs" in order to avoid traffic. Are we lame or what? But we were able to zip right of there and made it to the nearest Cold Stone Creamery just before closing, yum.

Overall it was a good time. I got to meet a LiveJournal friend too but would have felt funny asking for a picture. Isn't it weird meeting people you've only known online? But fun weird.

Have a good weekend all!

Playing School

2009-07-14T13:42:00.006-04:00

We're quickly closing in on only 1 month left before school starts. School supplies are already out in the seasonal section at the local WalMart, don't ya know?

I'm both excited and worried about Wiley starting 1st grade. He had a ton of trouble when we tried transferring him in during the last month or so of Kindergarten. They weren't really concerned about his academic skills, mostly it was behavior related. As in he didn't want to do anything the rest of the class was doing. Plus he said it was boring. Lovely. However in order for me to try to reinforce better learning behaviors, I'm going to try my hardest to "play school" and review some basic academics with both Wiley and Cyrus at least once a day before school starts. Poor Cyrus was born two months too late to start Kindergarten this year. I hope to get him back into some kind of preschool again this fall as well.

Plus "playing school" will give us something new to do. We all know how I scramble to find things to do with the kids that doesn't involve staring at screens. At this point I've totally done almost all of the 10 of the things I joked about NOT doing with your kids. Twice.

But where to start? I'm pretty good with getting them to do artsy type stuff, but haven't really tried the three Rs. Sing the ABCs? Count to 100? That's baby stuff mom! While it would be cool to whip up my own lesson plans, who has the time? I've been meaning to stop by a bookstore to look for workbooks but never got a chance. Instead I did what I do best and googled something along the lines of "learn to read printables" and was happy to find just what I was looking for come up as the first link.

Starfall.com started in 2002 as "a program that would be available online across the world to all children who are learning to read in English." I found their Download Center and printed out the Level 1 Reading & Writing Journal for Wiley and the Kindergarten level ABC Printouts for Cyrus.

We started this afternoon once Milo went down for a nap. I used "watching some Cartoon Network videos when we're done" as an incentive and sat them down at the table with pencils, scissors, markers and a stapler. I got a little bit of attitude from both of them, but we worked our way through several worksheets each and then read a little book that Wiley had cut out and stapled together. It took about 35 mins, and I think that is about the limit, as Cyrus was starting to sass & squirm and Wiley was under the table at one point (until I reminded him if we didn't finish there would be NO VIDEOS).

The true test will be to see if I can keep it up AND keep them interested. What might help is that I noticed that these printouts also match up to an interactive web site. So maybe once they are done watching an online video of "Flapjack" (what the hell IS that show about? talk about killing brain cells) I'll have them review the "Zac the Rat" story at starfall.com. Maybe reviewing on the computer will be overkill? Guess I'll find out. If anything, these kids are going are going to be pros (read:geeks) with computers!

Edited to add: Well, we missed a couple days after two in a row, but started back up today without too much of a fight. Haven't done the interactive web site yet. I did find that the ABCs printouts at starfall.com, after having 4 worksheets for letter A, started only being 2 worksheets long per letter. So I found another site for printing out additional letter work: First-School PreSchool Activities & Crafts, and their Alphabet Worksheets. That meant Cyrus was able to do some cutting & gluing today while Wiley finished up his work.

Also, I found some numbers/math worksheets to try with both of them next time.

The first step is to admit you have a problem

2009-06-12T09:36:00.003-04:00

unemployment, originally uploaded by recovering lazyholic.

To several of you, this illustration by Erin of Recovering Lazyholic, is probably kind of confusing. Am I right?

To me, I can easily recognize the 7 elements in this "circle of no life" as (CW from top): RSS feeds; flickr; facebook; Gmail; tumblr (this is the only one I had trouble with); Blogger and Twitter.

If I'm not pressed for time (when am I lately?), and have the luxury of enjoying a mug of coffee while the boys might play a Yo Gabba Gabba game on nickjr.com, then I can usually make it 'round this circle in about 30 - 40 min. A majority of the time it is just reading or "checking" what might be new since the night before. Sometimes I'll take a moment to leave a comment on a photo or blog post or to update my "status."

Sure 30 - 40 min is bit much, but wouldn't it take that long to page through a morning newspaper? Where I feel the problem starts for me is when I've gone full circle, and then start right back 'round again, as if transfixed by the glowing screen. Or when you step away only to come back "check" in again less than an hour later. I mean really. This is when it moves into procrastination and wasted time and "no life" territory. Not to mention the fact that in the meantime my children have now burned through close to an hour of their recommended maximum screen time (two hours daily of TV and/or computer games combined).

Time management is something I'm working on. This week I've been testing out a daily schedule, with the main goal being planning a routine of things to do during the day in between allotted times for staring at screens. It is kind of hard. But I'm trying.

So I'm stepping away now. Time to unplug again. I'm not promising I won't "check in" later, but for now I'm going outside with the kids.

Have a good weekend!

PS - It took me about half a day to put away all that laundry.

Laundry Strike

2009-06-05T10:10:00.003-04:00

Should you not hear from me for a while it might be due to this massive pile of clean laundry falling and trapping me while I lounge on the bed reading a smut novel... maybe when the boys get hungry they'll come dig me out.

So really I'll probably only be buried for a few minutes.

Eight months from today I'll turn 35. I think it is starting to mess with my head.

Have good weekend, y'all.

10 things NOT to do with your kids this summer

2009-05-28T10:57:00.005-04:00

Preface: Almost a year ago, when I was trying to come up for a reason to start this blog, I came up with a lofty list of things I could write about. One of those was "kid/mom things." I hope the handful of "style" fans I might have attracted from wardrobe_remix will bear with me. Or bare with me, as I undress my stress. I mean, you very well might be mothers yourself, or fathers, guardians, older siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents or babysitters. Or maybe you despise all children and just want to make fun of breeders. Whatever, I'm kind of making fun of myself again anyway, so everyone is welcome.

Either way, at some point you might be as desperate as I've been lately (it isn't even summer yet!) and have googled "things to do kids summer." Were you as underwhelmed as I was? I thought so. No one has the answers.

What the hell you are supposed to do with your kids for month after month?

I don't think anyone survives to blog about it. Therefore I will supply you with the ten things I've tried that are probably the reason no one survives.

Note: these are all things that do NOT include sitting in front of the computer or DVD player. We've got that one covered, duh. What do you think my kids are doing as I write this? :)

playing tag in the back yard = OMG, wanna quick way to gauge your fitness level? I've learned my lesson, don't go any faster than your 2 yr old. Plus, just take a closer look at the photo to the right, no dignified thirtysomething wants to admit they look like that while running.
hide-n-seek = This is fun for like the count of 100. If your kids are like mine, they hide in the same place one time after another... the whole 'Oh my gosh I'm just gonna give up and sit on this lumpy covered couch' gag is only funny to you once, to a 4 year old it is endless entertainment.
coloring = if I have to pick up another half ton of crayons scattered about the floor I'll seal somebody in wax.
water guns = Dude, the 50 cent ones don't work for shit and/or don't last long enough. No wonder they sell things like the super soaker.

Tip: Should you give up after 10 mins, leave the cheapie guns floating (plugs out) in a big tub when you go inside. When you come back out, most of them will be filled.
cooking = sure it is fun to let the bigger kids stir a bowl of boxed muffin mix, until it is splattered all over the ceiling because they start fighting over the spatula.
sidewalk chalk graffiti = Stew was right, sidewalk chalk stains brick walls. Hey kids, want to help me spray and scrub this stuff off? They sprayed, but I had to scrub.
PlayDoh = this one keeps the kids happy for like 5.8 mins, then all hell breaks loose.
paper airplanes = see above.
riding bikes = see above, plus add the first-aid kit.
I haven't gotten this far. I give up. Want to watch a DVD?

Anyway, as you can see, even the most innocent activities can be dangerous for your sanity. But it is worth trying them once, or twice or every friggin' day until you are pulling your hair out and crying for Calgon to take you away.

Otherwise, here are a few things some esteemed bloggers before me have recommended, with my only slightly serious comments.

attend a baseball game = Are you kidding? With a 6 yr old, 4 yr old and a 2 yr old? Even with 2 adults on the ready, this sounds like no fun at all. Aren't baseball games just for drinking and hotdogs?
go fishing = um, ok, as long as each child has his own rod and reel and a case of never ending worms with little elves to bait the hook and make everything perfect and then take a picture before battling about taking the fish off the hook.
go to the zoo = sure, this is fun, until your 2 yr old decides he has enough of the stroller and instead wants to run like the wind, darting ahead between other families and kung fu floating up trees at the concession stand.
go hiking = this one is fun until your neurotic 6 yr old starts throwing a fit about the amount of insects that are hovering about his body at any given second. Are there spiders on this tree? Is there a tick on my leg? Is there a man-eating colony of ants down that path?
ride bikes to the ice cream shop = Are you kidding me? Where do you live, in cookie-cutter candyland? Obviously you don't have redneck teenagers/twenty-year-olds-off-from-work flooring pumped up 4x4s by your house twice a day with 10+ miles between you and the only ice cream place.
have a treasure hunt = This idea is good on paper. Your kids draws out the plans. It looks awesome, you are impressed and fuel their fire. You let them pick out what treasures to hide. They start yelling about why we aren't hiding the treasures yet. They freak out at the store when you are buying the treasures. They hide in their room because you are hiding the treasures in the wrong places. They throw a fit when it is time to start. And. Then. They cry when somebody else finds the friggin' treasure first.
go to the public library = anyplace where "inside voices" are required is generally NOT a good idea
co-op with your neighbors = your neighbors have a trampoline but you don't? or maybe a pool? time to build that fence! I'm sorry, but now that we actually have a neighbor, let alone one with a kid, I've found out that most of the time that means that kid arrives in your backyard (unsupervised of course) exactly at the minute you start having fun and then doesn't leave until you FORCE HER TO.
backyard camping trip = this only works if your tent didn't get blown across the yard by a tornado the last time you camped in your backyard (and then let it sit out there neglected for several weeks)... sure we still have the tent, but all the doodads that fasten it down?
take the kids to work= are you serious? like you'd get anything done! ... hey wait, this one actually sounds like a good idea, Stew you up for it? ha ha

All joking aside, PLEASE HELP ME! Ha ha. No really.

Actually, once you take a deep breath, step back and realize that you no longer have a life, then facing the endless summer is not all that daunting. I will survive! Hey yeah!

If only there were more parks w/ playgrounds around here. Tell me again why I said we shouldn't have the movers haul our playset down? I've recently signed up at KaBOOM!, a site that has a "playspace finder," only to find that no one there knows where the local parks are around here either. So I guess that will be my "act of kindness" mission this summer... to add and rate any parks I find to their database. You should do it too, for the sanity of all kid herders out there.

Laughing at myself

2009-05-12T11:36:00.013-04:00

Over the weekend it came to my attention that several of the members over at wardrobe_remix had been mocked at another web site (*), one devoted to making fun of the "fashion victims" found in the group. I followed the link and scrolled through the pages of photos, smiling/chuckling at some of the captioned pictures, because let's face it, out of the 100s of photos added to wardrobe_remix daily, some of them aren't to my taste either. But hey, that's okay. To each his own right?

Then I saw one of my photos among the "rejects." Doh! And there I was again. Ack! Given my moodiness recently, it is amazing that I didn't curl up and start crying. In the interest of the w_r community I did ban the person from the group once she outed herself. And initially I had "blocked" her from my own photos, but decided to unblock after some thought. I didn't try to hide either- I showed the captioned photos of me to Stew and we laughed. He commented about how sad it was that someone had taken the time to do that web site in the first place.

True, but creating a site to make fun of people isn't really that hard these days. The one in question is just a tumblr which takes like 5 seconds to register for, can be fairly anonymous (unless you register a domain to redirect to it), and there are tumblr bookmarklets w/ functions for easily compiling a series of photos/links found on the web. Tumblr posts don't really allow for any discussion or commenting (unless you yourself have a tumblr, but even then it is more of a "ya, what she said" dialog). Tumblrs are basically a quick and dirty "here, I want to show you this, cuz I'm awesome, and I don't really care what you think about it." (*)
(*) Note, the site is no longer tumblr. Apparently the owner is going to self-host it soon and allow commenting.

And the premise of the site didn't take a brainstorm either. E's Fashion Police and "Go Fug Yourself" have been online and making fun of celebrity style for a long time. For non-celebs there are already a couple tumblrs that have been making fun of "street style" photos, like lolbook.nu and latfh.com. Of course even before all this there were tabloids to make fun of celebrities and the "Dos & Don'ts" page in Glamour magazine for unfortunate souls caught with an exposed bra strap or a bad case of camel toe. Sometimes these rags were even considerate enough to put a black box over the victim's face.

So the lovey dovey champions-of-personal-style DIYer's at wardrobe_remix were just ripe for the pickings weren't they?

Hey reader, How do you feel about sites that mock others? Is it freedom of speech? How would you feel if you were a victim? Would you ask for the pictures to be taken down? Are there copyright issues? Should I have just kept quiet and not said anything?

It wasn't the first time I've been made fun of for how I look. *cue violins*

Having always been "pleasantly plump," I've been mooed and oinked at on the school bus. Then there was that time I tried dying my hair black in high school and it turned green the next day, staying that way for like a week before I went and got it fixed. Even one of my friends joined in with the bullies on that one. I'm not sure if any "fashion victim" taunts have ever been made to my face before, but I've certainly been party to my share of eye rolls and giggles/whispers. Dressing "different" kind of became my trademark. Online, as it was this weekend, it has mostly been related to the outfit photos I upload to flickr for wardrobe_remix, i.e. I've had a handful of snarky comments of the "you should go on that 'What Not to Wear' show" variety (twice I've gotten that one).

When you put yourself out there on the internet, or hell even in real life, you've got to take the bad with the good. So far the positives related to my wardrobe_remix participation have far outweighed the negatives. One of the group rules is to be positive about yourself and to others, no negative comments allowed, etc. and from that a warm sense of "community" among the "remixers" has grown. Getting positive comments on your outfit can boost a lagging ego, and the whole process of creating outfits & deciding which to document actually gets to be kind of addictive. The trouble is, while what I'm wearing might be accepted/applauded in that little shiny happy online community, on the outside or IRL most people probably could care less what I'm wearing, are mildly curious OR they are laughing and judging.

Oddly, finding myself openly the object of mockery was actually kind of refreshing. Like a slap on the face or something. This reaction is new, because I'm the "straight As" type that takes criticism very personally. Usually I get quietly defensive and/or close down. Then I end up over-analyzing the critique, debating what it was I did wrong or why it was perceived as "bad" and how I could have done it differently... at least when it comes to doubting homework or daily life decisions, etc. In this case, I just stepped back and told myself it wasn't really a big deal. Ha ha, good one! Why not laugh at myself too? Especially about something like clothing. Sure I've got two "textiles & clothing" degrees (ha ha, I even make fun of myself for that sometimes too), but really I guess I don't take fashion very seriously at all. I don't believe in the "rules" or the "faux pas."

I mean sometimes I wear stuff just because it might look funny or be perceived as wrong... in school I used to deliberately piss my friend off by wearing red and pink together. The two outfits deemed "rejects" were actually fairly bland in the scope of things. That "fanny pack" - yes, I realize it can be considered a fashion no-no and subject to ridicule. But the damn thing comes in handy, AND it was Grandma Long's and she was awesome.

Saying my lazily belted vintage dress makes me look like a rectangle is more of a fact than a cutting insult. In several fashion decades, the rectangle silhouette was an ideal. For me, hey it was cute & comfy. Those secondhand "like new" Crocs brand flip flops I bought cheap this past weekend? Good for both functionality (my other black flip flops fell apart) AND as a joke (I've made fun of Stew for wearing his Crocs in public, I mean doesn't everyone hate Crocs?).

Of course, there are times when I just plain make mistakes. Mistakes of the "what was I thinking?" variety. In hindsight it was easy for me to look through my wardrobe photos and find a lot of mixes that I'll never wear again. But that is what is so great about clothing & style, it can be ephemeral, dynamic, "remixed." Like would I wear those green tights w/ pink skirt AND Vans agin? Yikes, no. Wide white belts? Not so flattering. Plus I found a lot of stuff that just wasn't all that interesting and maybe didn't need to be shared with the world, OMG! After 3+ years I'm learning to be a bit more selective with what I upload. Plus I'm starting to only share outfits that I think are interesting AND that are 100% Thrifted (I'm still on my "not buying any new clothes" kick (has been close to a year and a half now -- but do accept gifts, hint hint). ;)

Upon reflection I've learned that it can be good to laugh at myself, and as long as it isn't deliberately cruel & hurtful or bordering on harassment (which I agree, several of the other comments were), then who cares if someone else is laughing at me too. *ding!* (was my family the only ones that sang out "ding" when the "point" or "lesson" of a TV show was being revealed?)

And also, nah na nah boo boo to all the naysayers! Love ya!

Moving Sucks

2009-03-23T12:16:00.003-04:00

Going offline for a while.

Moving sucks! (Freaking out! Just a little...)

Getting there will be good though.

Next entry will be from down south, eastern time zone.

See you then...

Things I Like - Pt. 4, Road Trippin'

2009-03-18T12:30:00.002-04:00

Note: This has been sitting as a "draft" for a week now, finished it and posting today over lunch to get my mind off things.

Question:
So what does one do when one needs to be out of the house for 4 hours, but has a 4 year old currently addicted to watching Finding Nemo every morning and a 22 month old on day three of a fever and cough?

I suppose I could have scheduled a doctor's appointment, but have you ever gone to a doctor with more than one kid in tow? Save that for emergencies only people! After putting that off until Thursday afternoon*, I was left to find something we could do "out of the house" without entailing a lot of actual in-and-outing. It was like 8° F and windy as hell, so rule out going to a park for fresh air. * Turns out his main problem was lung congestion, they put him on breathing treatments and antibiotics just-in-case, he feels much better now.

Answer:
Go on a road trip!

After getting all the kids loaded up, and the dogs too, we dropped Wiley off at school and I stopped at Casey's for some coffee. Got Nemo started on the little portable DVD player (I know, I know - give a frazzled mom a break).

Wasn't really sure what we were doing at that point, but I headed west at any rate. Partly drawn to the windmills again, which were chopping 'round at a good clip, I decided to head north on Highway 65. It cuts right through the field of them and I'd never driven up that way before.

Exploring was featured before as a "thing I like" and I guess this is sort of a spin-off, or combination... exploring and road trippin' are things I like that usually go hand-n-hand.

Two weekends ago the kids and I had road tripped to my parents' for one last weekend on the farm. We had a good time, and even though the drive back was a gray/dreary day (see left), I still enjoyed listening to music and watching the familiar scenery pass by.

Similar to that drive, this time I was trying to soak in the Iowa / Midwestern landscapes while I could. I love being able to see miles ahead, with landmarks on the horizon getting closer and closer. I reminded Cyrus to look out the window occasionally, since in North Carolina the majority of the time all you can see are tall pines lining the roads. He likes to spot water towers and cows.

I love to look at rural decay, like old abandoned houses, or leaning buildings, or weathered windmills standing lonely in a field. Also I like to gaze at romantic little homesteads with big boxy farmhouses and ponder on what kind of family calls it home. Will they have the same trouble selling as we are? Does their septic system pass inspection?

Part of the allure to road trippin', for me, other than enjoying the scenery, is the actual driving. Having grown up in an county where you could get a "school permit" at age 15, I've been behind the wheel for over 19 years now.

Driving 30 - 40 minutes to the closest metro area means nothing to me. Taking day trips to amusement parks over 4 hours away with friends was a high point of my teenage years (see left, group shot taken in parking lot of Worlds of Fun, Kansas City, MO).

I've driven to Mt. Rushmore, Kansas City, Denver, Chicago and New York City. After college, while working as a CAD trainer, I drove to a small mountain town in Tennessee. Often I had to drive several hours in rental cars to "remote" locations after flying in to hubs. When my parents visited us in NC, we drove to the Outer Banks, my dad said I was a "road jockey." I'd say I'm a fairly calm driver, Stew makes fun of me for saying "Hey! Hey!" instead of honking the horn. But I'm getting more jaded as I age. I used to have quite the lead foot, got a couple warnings in high school and several speeding tickets in NC, but having kids might have slowed me down. Now I find myself staying close to the speed limit on two-lane roads, taunting people to pass me (I rarely pass people myself) and when on four-lane highways I typically stay between 5 and 9 mph over the limit.

Getting ready for road trips drives me bananas, but the actual trip itself is fairly zen. Sometimes it can be stressful if I'm not the one driving, or there is bad weather... but otherwise I like to just chill out and watch stuff go by. It gets my brain juices going and more often than not, good ideas pop-up, or positive troubleshooting occurs. If my digital voice recorder is handy, I take voice notes. Or as witnessed below, I merely document the scenery.

This most recent road trip solved the problem of being out of the house... once we got started headed north, I ended up picking a point two hours away, knowing we could take a break there, then turn around and waste another two hours on the way home. First I figured Iowa Falls would be far enough, but then I saw a road sign for Mason City and decided it would be our final destination (for a moment I considered the IA / MN border, but that would have been another hour or so). While passing through Iowa Falls, I did caught sight of a strip-mall Goodwill, so we stopped there quickly on the way back and I snagged two awesome sundresses, one of which is vintage and soon to be listed at etsy or Market Publique.

Our next road trip will be a long one... we set off for North Carolina on the 27th or 28th. It takes about two days, and typically we stay in Columbus, OH with family friends the first night. I'm looking forward to making the trip, but dreading all the stuff to do before then.

Safe travels all!

Weekend Bag

2009-03-06T12:40:00.000-05:00

Getting ready to head out for one last weekend trip to mom & dad's place... I liked how my stuff looked on the bed before I packed it, so I'm sharing.

I like to pack items that coordinate or "mix & match" if you will. Also I like the challenge / balance of limiting my choices, but still having choices... if that makes sense. For today's drive, I'm wearing the skirt/long sleeve t-shirt/vest combo on the left. Usually I'll plan on wearing a couple of things more than once. In this case it would be the jeans, and probably the black basics. However if I had to stretch it out past 2 days, or needed to change for an "occasion" I could switch the jeans out for the skirt again. I'm only doing one pair of shoes (my thrifted bad-ass boots this weekend), otherwise I wear a pair and a pack a pair (for example, were it warmer I'd have packed my navy blue sandals with this stuff).

Inventory:

thrifted patchwork vest
Target clearance long sleeve scoop neck black t-shirt
thrifted mixed blues hippie skirt
thrifted "Bates" bad-ass boots
thrifted vintage Levi's
handmedown (snagged) Depeche Mode World Violation t-shirt
Target clearance "Luella" tank top
handmedown vintage Barry Manilow "One Voice" hoodie
thrifted vintage lilac short trench coat
grandma's collection brooches
grandma's collection "The Trojan Luggage Co." traveling bag
toiletry bag
jammies (pants were gift from Stew, top is old t-shirt from childhood)

And yes, once I got dressed, the remainder fit just perfectly into the bag.

Have a good weekend!

Old Writings - Pt. 5

2009-03-01T16:56:00.005-05:00

In Part 5 of "old writings" I'll share the remainder of my undergrad scribblings, the somewhat PG-13 rated ones anyway.

(as before, click images to view large)

Starting off is one that I thought I posted last time, but didn't. Brenda and I used to make fun of "alterno girls" even though that is probably what other people would have called us... of course we were the cool kind though :)

this next one was probably inspired by my first read of The Fountainhead and crushed hardcore on Howard Roark:

gold stars to those that catch the literary allusion in this next one:

See, I was a bleached blond the Summer of '95

Once 1996 rolled around I slowed down writing these little ditties. I think maybe because I was content/happy? (that means you, Stew...) Plus I started actually making it to most of my classes and doing homework, the shock! Not that there weren't any troubles, actually that summer I experienced heartbreaking loss (which I wrote an essay on and might share and talk about in the future)...

These next two, which were in the Spring '97 Ethos Magazine, reflect my change in focus:

Later in the Summer '97 I interned in NYC, again a busy/happy time... and this last one I think I wrote while in the city. It ended up in the Spring '98 Ethos Magazine (note: this was before American Beauty):

Check back for Part 6... which will probably wind up the series, ending with more current stuff.

And just because...

lights! camera! action! a video (it explains itself)
&
outtakes from above video

Old Writings - Pt. 4

2009-02-22T23:55:00.003-05:00

In Part 3 of my "old writings" series I left off with a transitional poem, one that was written the summer before college but had been published the end of my first fall semester. Along with that poem, two others made it into the December '93 "Finals Week Edition" of the ISU Daily.

Below is a scan of all three as they appeared in print:

(click all images to view large)

I remember being upset about the typos, I think at least one of them was my mistake- the others were the Daily's.

Remember Scott "Tattooed Guru" Andresen? He had poetry published in that edition too, and later went on to have a weekly column. Wonder what he is doing.... *googles* Looks like he married in '06 and lives in California. Remember another Daily columnist, Corey Moss? He spews the news for MTV now. I don't remember this chick specifically, but she had poems published that semester also. Gregory Parks has a myspace page. I don't suppose anyone is out there googling my name, if so- Hello! You found me. This is what I'm doing.

Anyway, after that Fall '93, it is all a bit of a blur. My diary/journals blank out after September '93, starting up for a few entries in February & March '94 before sputtering out again. There are two cryptic entries near the beginning of my sophomore year, in October '94, and then the storyline picks up again in February '95. Basically dorm life took its toll and I either wasn't focused enough, or didn't have quiet moments to reflect on anything until after that winter break when a group of us moved into a little house west of campus.

While my journals went quiet for a spell, I did keep "writing" and some of them I really like, as they evoke those blurry times perfectly... yet they are a bit incriminating. So I'm not going to share those now- you'll have to wait for the tell-all autobiography. :)

However, here are three that sum up the era of the missing diary entries:

(click images to view large)

1

2
3

...check back for Part 5, in which boy crushes pop-up once more, and then I grow up a bit and get "published" again.

My "Watches" in Spoonflower Fabric Contest!

2009-02-17T04:20:00.010-05:00

ETA- Thanks to all who voted! (235 votes in the end) I fought neck and neck for last place with the one other design I liked the most out of the competition. Which says something I think. So I'm OK with the results, and happy to have been in the running. Eventually I'll pay to get a swatch or 1/4 yard of one of my patterns printed, and may enter another design in the competition... but probably for the short-term it will return to the back burner. :)

Fun! My "WatchesTossedPacked" textile design was in the running for "Fabric of the Week" at Spoonflower.com!

There were six designs, and the design that earns that most votes is printed on 100% combed cotton by Moda and then offered as an exclusive sale (for one week only) at Spoonflower's etsy store. The winner doesn't get any of the proceeds, but they enjoy 15 minutes (+/- ) of e-fame and a booty of 5 yards free printed fabric ($100 value).

A little background info: I've been following Spoonflower for a while now, having first heard about it via a flickr contact (I think?). Spoonflower is a small company based in Mebane, NC (hello future not quite neighbors) that digitally prints user submitted, custom designs on fabric. They launched a beta web site in Spring of '08 and "opened" in November '08.

Due to my stint as a graduate assistant / lab technician for the digital textile printer at school, and having had written a slightly similar business plan for a class project in Spring of '06, I was instantly curious and hopeful about their venture. I signed up for the waiting list and got my invite to join in August.

When I'd signed up as a member, I'd OK'd Spoonflower's email notifications, and also put their blog in my RSS reader. So while I hadn't tried the service out myself, I was watching it grow. When they started a "Fabric of the Week" contest in late November, my interest was piqued again. It occurred to me that entering a design in the contest would do two things- give me a chance to test out their interface (pretty simple) and serve as good incentive to dig out my rusty digital textile design tools. Would I remember how to do all the steps I'd taught undergrads for four semesters? A few of Spoonflower's print file requirements were different, like working in LAB color and only saving at 150 dpi-- but recoloring the motif, creating the tiled repeat and saving it in .TIF format quickly came back to me.

Instead of starting from scratch, I booted up my external hard drive and grabbed a couple files from my one of my lesson plans developed while as a TA/Lecturer for a CAD textile design course. I had used a marker rendering of a watch as a lab example for Spring '07s Project #1, "Designing for traditional print methods." That marker sketch (see right) was inspired by a memory of my fave childhood fishie Swatch watch, aided by a pic of some Swatch watches I'd found on eBay. For the lab example, I scanned my marker rendering in, and showed the students how to reduce the number of colors, clean it up and/or recolor it for future use as a design to be used as a "motif" in various repeat methods. I think it was actually December before I started hacking away at my watch file again in Illustrator and Photoshop. Beating it into submission until it was in two different LAB gamut colorways and ready to be put into various repeats.

The type of repeat I find the most fun to do is a seamless "tossed" pattern, in which you duplicate the motif and "toss" or scatter it randomly within a given area. For best results, you offset the file (the design is split a certain percentage, and wrapped around the edges) and then add even more of the motifs, offsetting and adding until you are happy with the somewhat random and "seamless" tiled pattern.

The amount of space or ground fabric between motifs determines whether it is "spaced" (example to left) or "packed" (my entered design). Also if there is more figure or "motif" visible than ground it has an "all-over layout." These non-directional, allover layouts are the most efficient for pattern cutting. When laying garment pattern pieces on a tossed repeat fabric for cutting, the pieces can be rotated 180 degrees, or even slightly tilted (only if necessary, they do this in production sometimes) in order to get the highest utilization of the fabric possible. Whereas if you were to cut the same garment out of a one-way or "directional" repeat (such as stripes or rows of Eiffel towers all facing the same direction), you'd have to make sure you cut all the pieces out in the same orientation which typically creates more wasted fabric.

As you go about your days this week, take a look around at the printed fabrics around you... are they randomly scattered? Tightly packed? Grid-like? Vertical or horizontal brick type patterns? Can you make out what the repeated design motif is? How often does it repeat? What is the end use? Wallpaper? Automotive upholstery? Long skirt? Home decor? CEO's tie? Snowboarding pants? Teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini?

This is the kind of wack-a-do stuff that runs through my head... and yet another reason I love thrift shopping. Even if I don't buy anything, I still enjoy looking through all the crazy printed garments on the racks. I'd totally buy something with a jumble of retro watches on it, wouldn't you? :)

In celebration of textile design, I'm going to try to wear prints all week...
here is Monday
here is Tuesday
here is Wednesday
here is Thursday
here is Friday

Thanks for visiting... Simmering on the back burner are plans to offer some of my repeated patterns for sale in my etsy shop. Maybe after I get that spare room sorted out.

Closet Culling & Counting - 82% Thrifted and growing...

2009-02-15T19:28:00.007-05:00

Back in December I had culled my closet and dresser, pulling out warm weather stuff and other unworn pieces. At that point I had merely piled it all into a large storage bin and shoved it into the spare room upstairs.

That spare room will be the death of me I know it. I'm slowly going through the bins in the basement, trying to get a handle on the kid's clothes first. I'm pruning the kid's wear collection down to pieces we've actually used before and still have life left in them. This way I hope to condense several of the bins, freeing up a few for when I finally make it upstairs.

I've said before I'm fairly low maintenance, but my one indulgence is clothing. I collect it. I basically have a "currently wearing" closet / dresser and a "saving for later" um, room. In my defense, it is the smallest room in the house, beside the 1/2 bath. A representative from United Van Lines was here a couple weeks ago, walking through the house to give us a packing/moving estimate. When I opened the door to the spare room I gulped and passed it off as our "attic" and promised him that about half of the stuff in there would likely be gone before moving time. Nevertheless, the quote from United Van Lines was like twice the size of other moving companies. Everyone has skeletons in the closet right?

Last week I did more superficial weeding, yet again avoiding the spare room, working only in my "currently wearing" closet and dresser. This time I put aside items for donation and organized the remaining pieces by "non-thrifted" and "thrifted."

In the picture to the left, the non-thrifted pieces and shoes are on the left. Everything else, to the right of the gap and including the shoe rack, qualifies as thrifted, hand-me-down or gifted. The qualitative researcher in me took voice notes, recording an informa l count and categorization.

Out of the 131 hung items, 23 were "non-thrifted," older bought-new clothes. Eight dresses (with the oldest being one from '96 or '97). Seven short sleeve knit tops. Five long sleeve knit tops. One woven long sleeve top. Two knit sweaters.

The remaining 108 pieces were "thrifted" and there were: 12 skirts; +/- 42 dresses; 5 sweater vests; 4 short sleeve sweaters; 9 cardigans; 2 hoodies; 5 long sleeve solid knit tops; 3 printed long sleeve knits tops; 1 woven jacket; 1 terry cloth pull-over; 4 woven long sleeve tops; 8 short sleeve knit tops; and 6 vests.

For shoes, in the older "non-thrifted" category I've got my oxblood Doc Martens from like '96, plus a few others in the spare room. I used to have very few thrifted shoes, but they've been a goal of mine this past year, so now I have 12 pair: 5 of which are boots; 2 casual tennis shoes; 1 pair slip-ons; 3 sandals;/ and 1 pair clown shoes. More thrifted summer ones are in the spare room.

Further reflection can be done on these statistics, but the one figure I was curious about was the part of my "currently wearing" closet that is thrifted. Right now that percentage is 82%!

In my dresser, there are two drawers of jeans and slacks, all of which are thrifted. Plus two drawers of thrifted skirts. So once I get around to narrowing down / packing my complete "wearing" wardrobe, the thrifted percentage may go up a bit more.

Strangely enough, one of biggest categories I can't seem to whittle down is 3 drawers of lounge/sleep wear... tank tops and t-shirts I don't want to give up, either because they are super comfy, have sentimental value or get worn occasionally as underlayers; plus several knit PJ pants; babydoll dresses, etc.

Very little of that loungewear is thrifted, but the majority of it, if not hand-me-downs or gifts, is just plain old old old. These are all pieces that I wouldn't donate due to how worn or maybe even stained they are. However, I hesitate to just trash them, so I hang on to them. But I think the end may be sight for all but one drawer of it, especially since there is likely a large bag of similar "rag quality" pieces waiting to be put out of its misery in the spare room. I gotta live up to the promise I made the moving man...

"Unacceptable"

2009-02-12T14:42:00.009-05:00

I admit to a small degree of willful ignorance when it comes to current events, especially of the political variety. Usually I'll have some vague awareness of news headlines, it is unavoidable really, even without a TV... i.e. my iGoogle homepage has a Top Headlines widget in the sidebar and sometimes at the end of a surfing spree I'll hit up foxnews.com or something.

So I had seen mentions of the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act), particularly from the twitter's of an author of a "design entrepreneur" book I own, K. Fasanella at fashion-incubator.com. However I wasn't really curious about what it was all about until I saw a fellow thrifty flickr contact mention that she wasn't allowed to buy a child's toy at her local Salvation Army due to the CPSIA. I was like "wait, what?" and looked into it. As usual, my interest wasn't piqued until I realized what effect it might have on me me me.

The first bit I found was a snopes.com article saying that it was "false" that the CPSIA prohibits all resale of used children's products. It went on to describe the CPSC's Jan 8th clarification which specifies that:

The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.-- http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09086.html

The next bit that struck me was the uproar in the craft/small business communities... particularly on etsy.com and then by children's products manufacturers in general. Many crafters/toymakers and other small manufacturers stand to suffer greatly due to the cost of testing items and/or because of advance purchases they've made that will have to returned, etc.

I am still trying to sort it all out, but from what I can gather, in late January, a "stay" was granted which puts the real enforcements off another year. However the "lead law" with reduced limits is still valid as of this past February 10th. I have nothing against the reduction in limits, if the new limits are more safe. But I am against the side effects these regulations have.

Okay, so I'm not a toymaker, nor have I gotten around to handmaking or screenprinting any children's clothing for resale (has crossed my mind at various times). But I AM a parent and a thrift shopper that has picked up a few children's toys and pieces of clothing now and then.

Plus I've finally started sorting through all our "stuff" and had already accumulated one large garbage bag of children's clothing and two boxes of toys, with the intention of donating it all. Even though resellers are not required to test children's products, they are still not allowed to sell items over the lead limit and are cautioned to avoid suspicious products. Therefore, several thrift stores have pulled the majority of their children's products off the shelves and are no longer accepting donations of that kind.

I called my local Goodwill and was told that they will accept children's clothes, but not toys.

Of course I am concerned about the health of my children and other's. I realize the ill effects of lead poisoning and have even been paranoid about it myself, considering we will in a 100 yr old house with chipping paint, etc. The kids have had their levels tested, Cyrus who was born and raised here, passed the test. I even asked about it at Milo's 18 month check when the Dr. didn't mention it... he said they generally do that at 24 months. I was given the option to test him early but knowing I'd have to sit up in the lab with both boys, I opted to wait. Now I'm wondering if I should have followed my intuition.

However it is also my intuition that drives my opinion of these new enforcements, which is that they are big brotherish and overkill. Generations of parents have successfully raised their kids without the government watching their every move, holding their hands. There are of course, several common sense ways to avoid lead poisoning and other dangerous chemicals.

So where will those two boxes of "unacceptable" toys go? ...and I'm sure there are many more in my situation... My guess is a landfill, having never been allowed to be reused, or secondhand. Perfect solution! Just what we need.

PS - regulations also apply to children's books printed pre-1985. So that new "old" favorite of the boys' I mentioned in my last post is now considered suspect. Luckily I don't let them chew on it.

Preschool Skillz

2009-02-08T23:41:00.008-05:00

This blog seems to be out to recess a lot lately... here are some other preschool activities I've been enjoying:

Coloring
(playing around making graphics using Illustrator)

Cutting & Pasting
(helping Cyrus w/ his homework, busted out my old skool stickers)

Playing DressUp

(layering 90% of the clothes I thrifted w/ my bday money, for a silly flickr group)

Sorting

(the toy closet before and after-
main classifiers being:
car? [also boats/planes, etc.]
critter? [robots, McD's toys, action figure]
or
block? [wooden, plastic, lego, etc.] )

Story Time
(Click Here
for an .mp3 audio recording [5 MB & 5 mins]
from our bedtime reading
of "The Five Pennies")

and then finally...

Relaxing / Reading / Bathtime
(enjoying a good book while the boys play quietly in the almost finished bathroom)

BRB! LYLAS! TTFN! KTHXBYE!

PS. Thanks to those that tested the comments on the last post. If the first few comments left you wondering WTF? check again to see my follow-up comment. :)

A favor? Say Hi! to help me test something...

2009-01-29T10:52:00.007-05:00

This post serves as a test, a test of the emergency broadcast system... beeep beeeeep beeeeeeeeeep

I've now heard from two separate parties that they've tried to comment, but the comment never showed up after they published it. I think both were possibly posting as anonymous.

After my last layout change I had been using blogger's newer 'embedded comment' setting, and possibly that was the problem. The other day I switched back to the 'full page' format, so maybe that will help. The inner former-tech-support-girl in me is curious what is up.

Would readers with a minute or two to kill like to test something for me?

Comment to this post and let me know what browser you are using and which option you picked (see screencap image to the right). If Anonymous doesn't work, try the Name/URL one. I think you can leave just your name there, or some made up name and whatever URL you want or even no URL. If still nothing happens, email me at the gmail.com address shown in the image here and describe which option you tried.

Seems like people with blogger accounts are able to comment, but I'd love to hear from other "blogger" bloggers too.

If you are a semi-regular reader who hasn't commented before (or even if you have), I'd love to hear from you to test the comments out! How did you find this blog? From my twitter / flickr / facebook spam? Are we old friends? Are we related? Do you live in Latvia and found my "no such thing as a perfect body" post after doing an internet search for "curvy woman"?

Soup Weather - Recipe #2, Chili

2009-01-28T02:19:00.003-05:00

In November I shared my love of soup, as well as a recipe for a favorite cauliflower one. This past Monday, in order to do something with the ground beef I had thawed in the fridge, I made chili to have ready for Stew's conjugal visit this weekend. While cooking it, I took some pictures and thought I'd share again. A little background first...

The inspiration for this chili was from a fave meal of Stew's served by a bar we used to visit regularly in Raleigh. Let's see if google can help me out here... ah yes, Mitch's Tavern across Hillsborough Street from NC State. We ate there fairly regularly for a while, usually once a week with Uncle Nick, before going to see an independent movie. A scene from Bull Durham was filmed there, sadly youtube fails to provide a clip. Anyway, Stew always liked to get "The Feast," which was a spicy thick-n-chunky chili served over penne noodles with a big chunk of garlic bread and a few tortilla chips on the side. Around that time we were trying out either South Beach Diet or something else low carb-ish, and chili was a fairly "good" thing to eat (not drenched over penne noodles, but hey). So we tried to replicate it at home. I think I started out from an online SBD forum chili recipe and went from there, making it a bit hotter and spicier by experimentation. Nowadays I kind of wing it, using what we have on hand (i.e. might have baked beans instead of chili beans, or a big can of tomato sauce instead of crushed tomatos, etc.). On Weight Watchers, a bowl of chili can be kind of pointy, but usually one big bowl is enough.

What you'll need:

dutch oven or large soup pot
high heat tolerant spatula
2 lb ground beef (or equivalent weight cubed chicken breast or beef stew meat)
one green bell pepper
one medium red onion (or fave color)
extra virgin olive oil
spices of choice- chili powder, cumin, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 can diced tomato w/ green chili or jalepeno
2 cans black beans (drain one can, use liquid from other)
1 can red chili beans
worcester sauce
hot salsa
hot sauce (shh... secret ingredient)
other stuff I've added: green chilies, mushrooms, corn, garden grown tomatoes & peppers, etc.

I like to use the dutch oven because A) it is big enough and B) it just looks like the proper vessel for a hearty chili and C) a little bit of rust is good for you right? But I'm sure it would work to fry the ground beef separately and then simmer all in a big soup pot too. You just won't be as cool as I am. :)

Chop up the green pepper and onion.

On medium heat, warm a bit of olive oil and garlic (powder in my case) and then I add in 1/4 of the chopped onion, sauteeing until lightly browned. Add the ground beef, squirt some worcester sauce over it and use spatula or device of choice to break up the beef as preferred. Cover and cook for a minute or so, then stir/chop until beef is pretty much browned. We've been buying 1/2 of an organically raised Iowa beef cow to store in the deep freeze, so our ground beef cooks up with very little fat. Otherwise you might need to drain a bit, but you might leave a bit of in for extra "flavor."

Add more garlic powder and a tablespoon or so of chili powder, another 1/4 chopped onion and maybe 1/4 green pepper. Stir/chop until beef is completely browned and you are inclined to sneak a chunk out to taste, as it should look like taco or sloppy joe stuff at this point.

Now add all the juicy stuff- crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, salsa and hot sauce. Those last two can be optional if you can't tolerate spice/burn, and their measurements I think are as preferred as well. I usually dump at least half a jar of salsa in and a good heavy dousing of our secret ingredient hot sauce (imported from NC).

I typically add spices now too... more chili powder, maybe a teaspoon of cumin, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and garlic powder. Also add the rest of the chopped pepper and onion. Stir it all up and let simmer about 10 - 15 minutes, possibly increasing the heat a bit.

After that first 10 - 15 mins, do a taste test and add more spice/salsa/hot sauce as you see fit. Otherwise, add in the beans and set back to medium-low heat. Let it simmer for 30 - 40 mins, stirring occasionally. You want it to have that nice slow bubble for a while. There should be a little pondscum buildup occurring on the top before you stir it the next time.

We've eaten it early before, like maybe after only 20 minutes of simmering, but I think it is best if it sits for a while (up to an hour in some recipes) on low heat. Also that way it cooks down and thickens a bit, which can be nice.

If only serving two adults, this batch makes two grab-it sized bowls (2 cups each I think?) and two quart sized take-out containers of leftovers. Usually I'll leave one in the fridge for a day or so later, and I'll freeze the other one. You'll need to let the container thaw in the fridge a day or more before reheating.

Like "The Feast" it is good over penne noodles, otherwise we eat it w/ shredded cheese and soup crackers. Sometimes with a dab of sour cream (that can help tone down the spiciness also). Yummy too as dip w/ thick tortilla chips.

If using a dutch oven, remember- don't wash with soap. Clean out as much as you can and then set it back on the stove with a cup or two of water in it. Cover and boil until all residue can be removed easily. Sometimes I'll wipe it down with a dab of olive oil before storing.

7 random (grooming) things (I like)

2009-01-26T01:22:00.005-05:00

I was tagged by Franca at Oranges and Apples in a game of sharing "7 random things" about yourself. She lives in Scotland, knits lovely things and wears fun colorful thrifty outfits, go check her out.

The idea of this tag is similar in vein to the "6 things" I posted before my hiatus, only more random, plus one. Handily enough, I had a list of saved post drafts, fledgling ideas, not likely to be beefed up any time soon. Many of them were "things I like" of which I made a few posts so far. Most of them happened to be grooming related... so I'm going to multi-task and spin my response to the tag like this...

7 random (grooming) things (I like):

In October I touted being all "low maintenance" with my beauty routine, and that is true for the most part. But deep down I have product whore tendencies stemming from many years as a teen spent perusing magazines, lusting after editorials chuck full of cool looking tubes and bottles of lotions, potions and spells. Also, somewhat regularly as of late, I've been zitty. So the hippie girl olive oil / baking soda / witch hazel is currently taking a back seat, while I give Neutrogena a whirl. Hey, I just noticed they have an anti-wrinkle anti-blemish cream... perfect for us aging thirtysomethings!
I like to take cold showers... or at least finish off with a quick twirl under a blast of cold. If you are to wussy to try that, but might like to add a bit of zip to your shower, here is another product recommendation, a la my BFF Brenda, who sent it to me as a gift... Bliss Super Minty Soap 'N Scrub wowza, invigorating! Would be a great valentine's gift for yourself, or for someone you want to shower with... ;)
Here is something else that I believe Miss B sent up, that I've used and liked: Redo Freshen Up Mist. It is like a wee little shower in a bottle, good for face and hair, etc. And vegan too, who knew. I've also used this dry shampoo for those days when I'm pretending to live like a rock star.
When I cut my hair, of which I've been doing quite a bit of as of late, I use professional-quality shears and with this new short length, have sort of followed the seven section parting technique. A handful of times I've toyed with the idea of going to school for it, but I'm not sure I'd be able to cut strangers hair. Stew's yes. The boys' yes. Friends' yes. But some big dude that comes in off the street? Scary. Anyway, I have pictures saved for a "Hair Cut, Pt. 2" post, unless it gets stuck in draft land forever. Which it might now that I'm typing this. I've probably cut my hair at least 4 or 5 different times in the past few weeks. It started to be like grooming a bonsai tree or something. I kept snipping away at parts that were jutting out or sections that looked too heavy. This last trim though, I fear I went a bit too far, so time to pack up the scissors for a spell... maybe even for another 4 year grow out?
I am addicted to lip balm. I apply it multiple times throughout the day, with strategically placed tubes by the toothpaste, by the Kleenex in the kitchen, in my desk drawer and in my coat pocket. I prefer the stick rather than the little jars (though those are cute). Carmex has been a favorite at times. Did you know it comes in flavors now, like Strawberry & Mint? The mint smells just like mint chocolate chip ice cream. Cherry Chapstick was my first love, and I go back to it from time to time still. During college I wore a tube of it around my neck on a little lanyard type thing that was "free with purchase." *wonders if they still make those* I've tried Burt's Bees Beeswax but never got hooked on it. For xmas, sister Cathy got us all Chicken Poop, and I like it better.
I like to tweeze. Man, is this another addiction? Definitely habitual, maybe not daily but pretty damn close. But my mom & sister do it too, so I'm not alone. And google shows that others do too, some who actually do it so much it is considered self-mutilation? Wow. But I feel you sister. It IS almost a stress release- a moment or two snatched to myself, usually in the sunlight, with a mirror. Pluck, pluck, pluck.
And lastly, another semi gross "harvest" like thing... blackheads & whiteheads, or "comedones" if you will. Come on, you know you love those Biore strips too! I tried using an extractor tool once (not the lance part! scary), but apparently (and thankfully) my plugged pores are smaller than what those are for. So for me, it is either pore strips, or more frequently, a gentle press between two q-tips after a steamy shower. Of course, #7 and #6 are probably partially responsible for #1... which just goes to show what a vicious cycle beauty and grooming can get be.

The spendthrift in me says, Note: Most of these products were gifts, or purchased by me with a Sephora gift card.

So now you know 7 random things about me, and way more than you probably cared for. :)

Here are the rules, should you like to play:
* Link to the person who tagged you
* Post the rules on your blog
* Write 7 random things about yourself
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let each person know they've been tagged

Peeps (all lovelies that have left me comments before, thanks!):
corsakti
spandexpony
squirlaraptor
ripittoshreds
jennoit
maria's lovers
Brenda (this means you need to start that blog dear)

Personal Style, 3rd installment - A Year of 100% Thrifted

2009-01-23T14:40:00.006-05:00

Sometime in late December was my year anniversary of not buying any "new" clothes.

It really wasn't that hard.

Not that I didn't buy ANY clothes... I most definitely bought secondhand and/or vintage clothes. Toward the end there, Milo and I were hitting up a thrift store at least once week. Not everything I "thrift" is for myself, I'm also selling vintage clothing on etsy. I have a stack of clothes waiting to be listed for sale...

However before I do that, I need to do a major sort of what I've got and do some passing on and donating on my own part. Sorting and donating will not only help with our upcoming move, but will give me a better picture of the depth of my wardrobe. As it is, I technically don't need to buy anything else for a long long time. Oops, forget I said that.

My current goal is to weed out a lot of my old "bought new" clothes that I rarely or never wear. That way not only will I pretty consistently being wearing 100% Thrifty outfits, I'll have a 100% Thrifty closet too. Will probably post more about that process in the future.

Here are some of my 100% Thrifty outfits from the past year

90 seconds of January 4th, 2009

2009-01-06T04:09:00.001-05:00

Hiatus over, maybe. Six or so weeks since my last post here, true to my word. You haven't missed much, mostly my days have been like this:

(Note: if embedded video doesn't play for you, watch it here. In either case, if it is playing choppy try pausing it, letting it download completely and then playing again. Also, due to 90 sec time limit, it goes by fast, so Mom, you might get dizzy)

Inspired by a buzzfeed link for the "My Day, Yesterday" group on Flickr, I filmed day-in-the-life type bits of my Sunday and then had a hell of a time editing it down to 90 seconds (following the group rules/concept).

As you could see, not a lot of free time. Or style (although that Sunday's outfit was 100% thrifty). But the fact that today I actually wore a dress, and was able to make this little video, despite the fact that it took me like 10x longer than I thought it would -but I still got it done- is a good sign of more things to come.

Happy New Year.

In the meantime...

2008-11-29T14:32:00.008-05:00

Regarding my blog & flickr hiatus mentioned in the previous post... Mom said "but how will we know what is going on?"

It is virtually impossible for me to stay offline entirely -- the web is like my morning newspaper, my encyclopedia, my yellowpages, my mail carrier, etc. -- I will still be online, just abbreviated, muted. More input, less output. Like a wise old owl, up in her oak... the more she saw, the less she spoke...
I'll be keeping my "twitter" status updated, which is the same as my facebook status, and also the last few tweets can be seen in the sidebar to the right of this blog. My twitter also gets feeds from my tumblr, which is a kind of a junk drawer where I collect things as I surf about, saving for later use. Also I'll probably still be throwing family pictures up at the oft neglected stewartville.net

My page at twitter is here: http://twitter.com/madam0wl