I save chairs

Start with funky 60 year old, very used, plastic and metal cafe chairs.
Disassemble with screw driver and pull out all the staples, rip off old vinyl, use as a pattern to cut new oilcloth covers and back. Using staple gun, stretch over seat innards and staple, staple, staple. Work on opposite sides, alternating sides, rotating until whole seat is done. Do the same with back and back cover. Use furniture tacks to attach back and back cover. Screw the whole thing back together. Do again 3 more times. See, what's old is new again, reuse, recreate, be thrifty, recession era beauty and all that. It is about the New Year even though it's really about new chairs....

Simple Woman Daybook Entry 3

give it a try:

FOR TODAY December 29, 2008...
Outside my window...it is dark as velvet
I am thinking...of which project to concentrate on first
I am thankful for...stars
From the learning rooms...journals, recorder, Yahtzee, the Yellow Submarine song
From the kitchen...clean clean clean
I am wearing...clothes and a hat
I am creating...a 11 branched felt tree, with large roots for Decembers Advent, to serve as our year long calendar, each branch is a month where we will add leaves or berries or snowflakes or flowers to count the individual days Inspiration here my idea is slightly larger and purple.
I am going...to go running tomorrow, I'd like to spend all day at it
I am reading...The Compassionate Classroom by Sura Hart and Victoria Kindle Hodson
I am hoping...to break the iron curtain
I am hearing...dinosaurs
Around the house...the tree is loosing needles, the rugs need vacuuming and the chairs need to be finished
One of my favorite things...saunas
A few plans for the rest of the week:clay projects, get off-island since I haven't in months!, moisturize mania, go on a long New Years Day run and enjoy a bonfire
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Astrologically Speaking, I'm pretty sure I know exactly what I want, I think.....

I got my astrological chart done. It's hilarious. First it says, ..."you are very independent, likes to make own decisions"- but then it goes on to say I "... like to be dominated and am indecisive." Supposedly I have lots of friends but "... is not particularly popular in her circle, but is feared and respected", love to talk, dress up, enjoy the Arts and materialistic things of beauty . I both "... do not take on anything without having thought of all the possible consequences, she can take all the time in the world and never loses patience to achieve her objectives. " as well as ".... throws herself into projects without thinking of the consequences of possible setbacks, nor of the dangers that may arise."
"Her financial situation has its highs and lows, which an inheritance can help out."--I am hoping this is true!! but it is highly unlikely.
And "Interest in art, has high ideals and a great attraction for sea voyages." so next you may see me on a Art Critics Cruise.

This is my favorite part:
She is happy in her imaginary world and thus is happy nowhere, because she can never find her ideal world - thus causing a lot of change, instability and also disquiet.

So, basically....I've got all my bases covered; happy, sad, totally know what I want, not sure what I desire, reserved with lots of friends who love me but I have no emotional attachment to, want love and lots of children, charming, snobby, bitter, greedy philanthropist, giving and altruistic, love to go out and spend hours in front of the mirror getting ready, simple, love to travel especially at sea, think home is the best place to be, confident, insecure, friends and interests are often abroad, will live to a ripe old age with a natural death.

By the way- I am a Taurus with a Capricorn Moon and ascending Aquarius, Mercury in Aries, Venus in Taurus, Mars in Aquarius, Jupiter in Aquarius, Saturn in Gemini, Uranus in Libra, Neptune in Sagittarius, Pluto in Libra, and a bunch of other things in my Houses!

Christmas Rocks

We played Rock Star video game for Christmas, complete with outfit. That is Bruce there on the right, Rob on the left, Juniper in front in purple and Nigel in the black hat. I had an eighties hip-hop outfit with too many stripes and too many pony tails but no photos.

Simple Woman Daybook Entry 2

if you want to do it, try here
FOR TODAY December 22, 2008...
Outside my window...magical mystical winter land
I am thinking..about living somewhere else
I am thankful for...love
From the learning rooms...journals, solstice coloring, constellations
From the kitchen...smells of bread baking
I am wearing...tights under my pants, a sexy red sweater and indoor clogs
I am creating...nothing
I am going...nowhere
I am reading...Brisinger
I am hoping...for the future
I am hearing...jazz
Around the house...a quiet hush
One of my favorite things...coffee
A few plans for the rest of the week:wrap all the presents, vacuum, winter walks, dinner with friends, a facial mask and some deep conditioning
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Solstice Dinner

Our dog Raisin, is even dark like Winter Solstice!

Chocolate Cupcakes of course!!

Black Olives

Salmon

Beets

Greens with Garlic

Wild Rice

It's called humor

Only 1 1/2 more days until the Sun Day after Winter Solstice!! I can do it, I think I can, I think I can......

tie me up, tie me down!

I'm having foreign dreams. Some one must tie me up, tie my down to anything or else I will burn everything and head for the border!!!

The Simple Woman's Daybook entry 1

do your own

FOR TODAY Dec. 16, 2008...
Outside my window...crunchy frozen snow angels
I am thinking...about children
I am thankful for...help
From the kitchen...smells of coffee cake
I am wearing...pajamas
I am creating...a list
I am going...slowly insane
I am reading...The Omnivore's Dilemma
I am hoping...for the future
I am hearing...puppy snores
Around the house...the solstice tree lights reflect rainbows of the past
One of my favorite things...is dreaming
A few plans for the rest of the week:cook some soup, do some home schooling, get off-island, smile hourly, sledding, eat oranges
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

bailout assholes

i don't have room to go into why we are involved in a multi-Billion dollar bailout! but I did read a particlularily irritating article about how I'm supposed to be happy for my hypothetical neighbors who are getting bailed out from their stupid-ass bad loans by getting 1% loans with low payments while I do not get help from my loan because we are not 3+ months behind on our mortgage and how that is going to keep my house value up since they won't be foreclosing!! So, as usual in US of A we reward the irresponsible and punish the hard working chump who followed the rules. It is getting harder and harder not to become a bitter ol' prune and just break all the laws and then whine about how everything was against me. (ps- we have no neighbors for miles, and no one is foreclosing....so where is my bailout?)
Ah, fine, think what you want about me. I truly don't understand everything about this thing but I do know that if we got bailed out to get a mega low interest loan, we'd be paying a lot less than we do now, I could buy organic food for my kids, fix my flat tire instead of blowing it up every morning and actually buy some high watt light bulbs for these frakin dark days of winter!!!!

Of dogs and children

There is great controversy in the world of newborns on whether or not to use the BabyWise way-which is to regulate your babies feeding schedule and sleep schedule to convenience yourself and make them wait for feedings no matter how they cry. You can probably tell I'm against it. A well meaning acquaintance gave me a copy of the book when Juni was new to our world. It made me cry to be so cruel to this new human in need of love and nurture. I 'attachment' parent, nursed on demand, wore both my children in slings, and now home school with Waldorf based curriculum. I absolutely think leaving your child to cry alone until a certain clock time is terrible and breaks the trusting bond of parent/child.

Now we have a puppy. I have been told to crate train it. I did it last night. It reminded me of the Babywise thing. However, dogs and humans are not the same nor do we want them to act the same, which essentially is the problem with Babywise cry-it-out attitude. A dog is your friend but you are the go-to-gal, the boss, the main man. Where as a kid should love and respect you, know they are important as well as you, respect your knowledge but have an opinion and be able to grow into a space open to their mind, body and spirit. A dog will never poop in the toilet, make their own dinner or move out. They are wonderful, smart and loyal. They want your attention, your respect and your love but you are always the alpha boss, forever and ever, the end.

I guess if you Babywise your kids, you are always the boss, the end and that is the big difference between dogs and children.

A new day is dawning

Oh it was so chilly the other morning, I wore two pairs of running pants, two shirts and my thin fleece jacket under the reflective vest for running. The grass went crunch crunch crunch under my feet. I saw 3 shooting stars through the veil of pitch black sky hovering over my head.
This morning the sunrise tinted the whole Eastern sky amber, accompanied by a rainbow spanning the Western sky! I just love morning.

Transitions

Goodness sakes, where have I been?
Well, I can tell you where I was the other night--out bathing in my claw foot tub under the cedar trees, looking at the sentinels shadowed against the night sky. I wanted to type about the similarity between the transition time in giving birth and the transition when creating something/art because I had read this blog entry of a lady(Red Dirt Mother) who had done just that-comparing life and giving birth, it was great.
I lay in the warm water of the bath, gazing at the cloudy night sky and realized that although that was terribly poetic and I loved it when I read someone else do it, I didn't have an agonizing transition with either birth. I lay in the bath tub, spooning warm water over myself and felt very relaxed. That writing approach wasn't going to work for me.
I did have an agonizing transition with this artistic endeavor however. Friday I was finishing up the last Hopscotch game, how did I miss that one, when the frackin' sewing machine jammed up. The needle would not come back up and the bobbin wouldn't spin and the mother fracker wasn't budging an inch!! I was so tired. I felt like I had screwed up Thanksgiving with friends, I had been sewing all day Thanksgiving and now the day after and now the sewing machine was broken.... I just left the damn thing and walked out the door, and off into the woods. I was a failure!!! I had decided that I wasn't going to make any money even if I sold every single game, cuz my original math was wrong and that was disappointing, to put it mildly! I sat on a giant rock and sobbed. What a waste of time! What a waste of money!! I could have been spending all this time and energy hanging out with my kids, or reading, or cleaning my dirty ass house. But, no I had to have some frackin' idea to make shit. Lame.
Then I was distracted by a the high pitched screech of the eagle that nests on the land. No, I realized that my math had been right to begin with, I was wrong just now. I would make money. What an idiot! I laughed at myself. What an idiot. I wandered back home and fixed the sewing machine and finished sewing. I'm so glad to be done with this whole thing. I don't have time for my crazy artistic endeavors. No one cleans the house, Bruce has to cook too much, no one does the laundry, who teaches the kids? who reads to them, who plays with them, listens to them talk on and on, pushes them on swings? who has energy to give them? If the mom is too tired and pre-occupied the house hold falls apart. Luckily I love being a mom, I'm not too big on constantly cooking or doing laundry. But, it's okay.
I miss my baby who died. I thought about her as I lay in the tub. I read that dreaming about being pregnant doesn't indicate pregnancy. It usually means the birth of something new in yourself, something creative. I dreamed I was pregnant the night I conceived. Then the baby died. It's been the longest and most painful transition of all the births. I guess this time I birthed something creative. I made something again, it's been years. I guess that was what my dream was about. I wish I could have laid in the warm water and dribbled water over myself to get through this one.....

Need to get a sign like this....

from Free Range Academy

May the Force be with you

With so many things to like about the new President-elect, my favorite is the reminder that it is our responsibility and honor to create and keep an eye on our Government. I think we, as a Nation, have forgotten that citizens make up this country. We shouldn't sit back and let others do this that and other, and then complain about it. Or let the Government pay our bills without changing our situation so we don't need that help any longer. We have become complacent and lazy quite honestly. Myself included. I will keep a better eye on DC and the actions of the United States Government.

I suppose I should say something interesting....
I've been so darn busy between doing costumes for the local Shakespeare company (fun) and making indoor carpet games for the Holiday Bazaar (Saturday after Thanksgiving) on top of all the normal life things-hair cutting, home schooling, house chores, harvest activities and canning, pickling, drying and baking, putting the garden to bed for the winter, J's birthday, supply runs to the Mainland (exhausting) and training for a half-marathon,,, well, I'm just plum tired!

time travel

I changed my clocks, there is much less lightness at the end of the day, a wee bit more at the beginning. I still get up before the sun. Seems like this last week and a half, the dark of winter has settled in. Might be the rain, clouds. Mostly likely the tilt of the Earth as we wiggle our way through Space and Time. It is so bizarre and amazing that we are moving through Time and that Time is not a constant. You know, black holes and all that time warping stuff. the universe is expanding, time is moving faster....
When you look at the Stars, you are looking back in Time. What should I look at to look forward?

Carnival, Circus, Games, Trains.......

This is what I've been up to since summer:

A HomeMade Carnival! We take it to Saturday Market........

There is Egg Toss (bean bag eggs),

here is a detail of the egg toss birds. Aren't they cute?

Squirt game

and Magnetic Darts.

A trifecta of fun!
We gave away painted rock pets for prizes. The kids made those. By the end of summer they dreaded combing the beach for ladybug shaped rocks!

All this carnival action opened up the kid I used to be, wanting to run away with the circus-literally. I really wanted to live in the train they all traveled in! And work in a striped tent! Having so much fun in cool glittering sequins every day!!! I think this is why I am obsessed with living in traveling buses/caravans, dressing up in costumes and making games........(duh)
Here is one of our buses.





Which then lead to this: Put the Fairy on the Flower. A lot like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, only there is nothing sharp and anywhere you get the fairy is good. It needs a good way to display it.

Which then lead me to Lily Pad Toss (not finished, a 5 lily pad toss and bean bag frogs) and Carpet Hopscotch (no photos of that one yet!)
I may fall down of exhaustion... I have 4 weeks to finish 12 games for the Holiday Bazaar! Along with normal life, Halloween costumes, J is in a play which I do all the hair for as well as help with costumes and then Thanksgiving!! Holy Turkey, Batman.... I must go rest in a book about the 60's California.

Whole lotta visuals

We went to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma on our little holiday. I guess I missed the animals. You all know my feelings about zoo animals- see December 11, 2007
I preferred to photograph plants. Nigel said these ones looked like the ones on Rotten Island, a book by Steig.view here

Merry-Go-Round action

hiking in a forest fire forest

Trumbly Designs

http://www.trumblydesigns.com/index.html title:Nostalgia

outsider art thoughts

Outsider Art is the work produced outside the mainstream of modern western art by self-taught, untrained visionaries, spiritualists, eccentric recluses, folk artists, psychiatric patients, criminals and others beyond the imposed margins of society and the art market. Coined by Roger cardinal in 1972 the term in English derived from Jean Dubuffets's "Art Brut"-literally 'raw art', 'uncooked' by culture, unaffected by fashion, unmoved by artistic standards.

This is how Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (World of Art) (Paperback) by Colin Rhodes describes "outsider art." I always thought of it as simply art that was made by folks who weren't subjected to the homogenizing of Art School. I went to Art School because I wanted to make art. I was 'taught' to make art a certain way. I was not taught how to use materials to express myself. I don't recommend art school to anyone with talent. European/American old man Art school is not about expressing your inner visions, it is about being an ARTIST!! I loved my school, in most ways. I enjoyed the relationships I made with other artistic folk and I liked some of the things I learned, but in general, the whole idea was to lay out how to make good artsy art.
I think I'm against pretty much all generalized schooling. It's been people 'outside' who have always found the most amazing, important and outstanding progressions of humanity!!!

Wikipedia states: While Dubuffet's term is quite specific, the English term "Outsider Art" is often applied more broadly, to include certain self-taught or Naïve art makers who were never institutionalized. Typically, those labeled as Outsider Artists have little or no contact with the institutions of the mainstream art world; in many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Much Outsider Art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds. Outsider Art has emerged as a successful art marketing category (an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1992). The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people outside the "art world" mainstream, regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work.

So, I guess I better use a different term to describe what I'm talking about! Self-taught artists. But, weren't we all self-taught, just some went to Art college....Naive art sounds derogitory, and that is my point about capital A-Art schools and Artists. It's like career Politicians. You surround yourself with like minded individuals and of course your world view seems logical and right for all. Diversify baby, live!!!

More beautiful "outsider" art

Michael Hoffee, http://www.outsiderart.info/hoffee.htm , I can't decide which painting I like best! Not that one needs to decide.... But, I do love dots.
like this book my brother in Wyoming (I only mention because I have 3) and his family gave us.
But not like these:
because they are tasteless and stick in your teeth.

well, isn't this just lovely!

Was it really necessary for a visual for diarrhea? Keeps ya wondering????

It's raining on my parade!

My favorite book! When the Cows Got Loose!

My daughters response to my Put the Fairy on the Flower project obsession. Why can kids capture the essence of something so immediately and seemingly easily?

It's raining today, it rained yesterday, it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I love rain, it fills our water tanks, it feels refreshing, and it helps plants grow-with the help of the SUN!!! Where is ol' sun? I watched a great youtube about how Christianity is based on the ancient worship of the sun...same dates, astrological events, wording, it was very interesting!watch here

Self Image

I do not look as I imagine myself. I wonder if most people feel this way? When I look in the mirror, the image returned to me doesn't reflect the idea I have of the way I look.