Fitzgerald Lake

I'm looking for ducks while Nutmeg thinks she's gonna find a frog swimming around in December!

I've been having a bunch of fun making tree appliques.  I've been collecting vintage and antique doilies for quite some time and have accumulated quite the pile.  It's really really exciting to have finally thought of ways to incorporate them into my clothing designs.  :)

www.acornolyphant.etsy.com

I had a great time this past Sunday hawking my creations at Ye Olde Low Brow Art Faire in Thornes.  It was fun to meet such a great group of folks and I appreciated the work that the organizers put into the event.  I loved how the old Dynamite space looked full of handmade creations!

In other news, I tallied up my earnings for the year and it seems that this business venture could actually be a way I could make a living if I wanted too.  Imagine that...I could hang out and listen to music while creating creatures and turning trash into treasure.  My dreams would come true!  The only drawback is that I would have to be super intentional about leaving my creative cave, it's waaaaaay to easy to hole away creating and then never get outside to feel the air, hang out with great friends, and peep some nature!  Next year's intention is to be very committed to creating balance in my work/creative life.  I feel so grateful to have finally given myself the freedom to make the time to be creative and I don't wanna lose it!

Yum Yum

The tiniest ice cream sundae I've ever had..

I had such a great time vending this past weekend at stART at the Station!!  The Worcester arts community is vibrant and it's always exciting to see what folks are up to.  Here's a peek at my booth set up.  I'm constantly tweaking it so if you have any suggestions please send them along..

This week I've got my nose to the grindstone prepping for another fair this Sunday!  Here's a peek at what I'm up to.

Miniature books made from scrap fabrics and found paper! Yay!

Ramblings on consumerism in a post-industrialist society...

I'd like to share an interesting post about the recent ad Patagonia put out on "Black Friday" pictured below.  Are they authentic?  Is this just marketing hype?  A case of being "less bad" but not really "good"?  Who knows... but either way, I think it's a step in hopeful direction.

Read the post here

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On another note... the recent news reports of people being stabbed and pepper sprayed on Black Friday has got me thinking a bunch about shopping, scarcity, and time.  If anything, it definitely gets me thinking that a life of voluntary simplicity is much much more appealing and not so crazy.

For more info on that see Black Friday 2011: How did the bargain day become so violent?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you like me and get bogged down and really emotional over all the negative things that go in the world?  would you like some inspiration a midst all the news reports of how horrible humans are?  If so, I'd like to share a book I read a few years back that really blew my mind.

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

"In Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design. The design of products and manufacturing systems growing out of the Industrial Revolution reflected the spirit of the day-and yielded a host of unintended yet tragic consequences.

Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, design can reflect a new spirit. In fact, the authors write, when designers employ the intelligence of natural systems—the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun's energy—they can create products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans that allow nature and commerce to fruitfully co-exist"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clearly living with the consequences of the Industrial Revolution is not really working for us or our planet.  I think one of our best attributes as a species is our ingenuity and creativity.  McDonough and Braungart are definitely ahead of the curve with their innovative design process.   I'm always super excited to hear about folks who look beyond that with practical solutions towards what's next..

Cradle To Cradle Design Framework

11.27.11 Misty morning....

In the workshop...

 

 The messenger bugs are almost finished.  Each one has a tiny little satchel which has a miniature scroll designed for people to write a secret on them.  Once the secret is in place, the messenger bug will carry it to the desired recipient and share the secret.  Excitement!

No two snowflakes are alike...

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley 1925

I absolutely love picture books.  When the weather gets cooler, the night's longer and what seems like darker and darker, nothing beat getting under the covers and reading and looking at the illustrations in a great picture book.

One of the first picture books that I really got into as an adult is "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian.  It follows the true story of Wilson A. Bentley and his fascination with snow living in Jericho Vermont in the late 1800's

The woodcuts by Mary Azarian add alot of visual depth to the book.  I highly recommend checking out her other works.  She is very talented and is able to capture alot of the things I love about living in the northeast with her art.

"A self educated farmer, Bentley attracted world attention with his pioneering work in the area of photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals (commonly known as snowflakes). By adapting a microscope to a bellows camera, and years of trial and error, he became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885"

Wilson Bentley  and his franken-camera

A further exploration of Bentley's process reveals an impressive amount of hardwork and passionate determination.  He had to take the photographs before the tiny crystals melted and disappeared forever. It also involved being ready to catch snow for studying in all kinds of crazy weather and working in an unheated barn for hours!!

one of Bentley's photographs

A trip to the "Snowflake Bentley" museum is definitely high on my list of places to get to some day.  You can learn more about "Snowflake Bentley" here...

In the workshop...

 

I've been cooking up some new necklaces and I'm pretty excited about them.  They're a mix of wood, various fibers, and quilt printed paper from this old book I found.

 

Here's a close up of one of the wood pieces before I've worked it into a necklace.  My sister said I can borrow her dremmel tool to try out and I think it's gonna be wild!

~Nature Crafts~

I think I might be able to finally admit to myself that I've slowed my life down enough that I can live in tune with the rhythm of the seasons.  Or maybe, it's just that I'm finally allowing myself time in my schedule to do more fun and meaningful things.  Either way... I like it.

That means I get to go to the library, take time grabbing what books catch my eye, pour over old craft books, and check out new illustrators!!! (I love picture books!)

I found this great book of nature crafts and decided to take some time to try making my first wreath.  It's wierd to think I've never made a wreath before.  There was that one year in highschool botany where we dragged in a heap of pine boughs and spent the day wreathmaking but I was in a faerie obsession so I made wire and pine wings to wear.  It was awesome...

I made this wreath from some bittersweet that I found growing around my yard and by the river.  It's a really beautiful plant.  The vine itself took some wrangling to shape into the wreath but, it was easier than I'd expected it to be. 

My first wreath!  I think it looks extra cute on this door!

I think bittersweet is considered an invasive and therefore seems to be undesirable.   I like finding ways to use plants that are commonly considered pesky for creative useful purposes like food, aesthetics, and more.  Maybe it's my training in permaculture that sets my gears churning for creative solutions to problems...who knows. 

Crafter Crack...

A few times I've peered into the window of this hidden local gem and drooled when it wasn't open!  But,  I'm so happy to share that I finally got a chance to check out the Wool & Dye Works shop in town and I am super impressed.  

The place is amazing and they have a whole wall of recycled wools for sale.  They also sell tons of teeny tiny scrap strips in amazing colors which I spent a bunch of time oggling.  I'm a total sucker for scraps and castoffs!  I walked away with quite the $5 bounty which I'm excited to start adding into my designs.  They even have a collection of old crafting books for sale.  yowza!

Look at all those colors!!!

Amazing..

One of my favorite blogs to read is This Tiny House.  It features tiny houses all over the world and the people who love them and live in them.

I came across this post and had to share it.   This person undertook a six week experimental project by living in this floating island home. Yay for experimental living!!

 Here's the link to the post.  

Remembering Summer...

I have all these really great pictures from my Adirondack summer so I've been thinking lately that it would be nice to post some with some stories.

7.11.11

This is a picture from Connery Pond.  It it one of my favorite spots in the Adirondacks.  It's super easy to get to and just absolutely beautiful.  I'm totally jealous of the two houses that actually get to live on this pond.  That's Whiteface Mountain in the background.

 A cruise around this pond by boat led me to find my first spotting of a midden pile other than plant matter!

midden : a refuse heap created by an animal

 I was super excited to see piles of empty shells hidden under these little spots that looked like great hiding places for critters to hang out and eat.  I'm guessing it must be raccoons...not sure though.

Connery Pond is also one of my favorite grasshopper peeping spots.  At the time we were there in the summer they were everywhere and with each step popped out many many grasshoppers!

I spent quite some time watching chunks of midden fall from a tree where a rascal red squirrel was eating above me.  At first... I heard some crunching sounds coming from the canopy so I snuck up to the base of the tree to see how close I could get.  I'd been practicing my forest stealth walking skills so by that time in the summer I was pretty undetectable (atleast so I thought).  I got real close and watched the little bits of munch fall around me for a good 5 minutes.  I was getting excited so I turned my head to look up because I really wanted to see who was in charge of the large amounts of food crumbs that were under this tree.  And of course, one big chunk came right down right at my eye.  Luckily I was wearing glasses so I was unharmed but I still never know if the squirrel knew I was there and did it intentionally....  Do they do that?

And it seemed like a visit to Connery Pond wasn't fully complete until it was finalized with a fried chicken salad and banana split!  Maybe that has something to do with it being one of my most favorite places....

Sometimes since I don't have a t.v. it's hard to figure out what to do when I'm in that mood where I just wanna totally veg out and not have to think.  Those are the times when I could really go for some Degrassi or I'll admit...some Will Ferrell comedies.  I love me some slapstick!  Anyways,  this is what I choose nowadays.  A lawn chair looking at the river.   The cute dog companion helps too...  

It would've been so weird to me back in my 90210 addiction days to think watching leaves fall could be as exciting as Dylan and Brenda finally getting together.  O.k,  I'll admit it's definitely not as exciting when Jared Leto and Claire Danes had their first kiss in My So Called Life... I still squeal like a 5th grader when I watch that scene!  But it is a close second!!

Find of the week!

As a Pedal Person, I find many amazing things while I'm biking around collecting people's recycling and trash.  Last week I got a cd player that I had been in need of for quite some time.

But today...  I found this cute little basket in the middle of the road while I was biking home.  It's the best.  I will treasure it.  If it's yours and it fell of your car while you were driving and you'd like it back...I'd understand.

In the Workshop...

Enjoying the south facing porch to do some work in.  It gets warm and cozy in there as the day warms up.

Here's a sneek peak at some of  the little messenger creatures I'll be selling at upcoming local craft fairs!

I've also been having a bunch of fun packaging up my orders from acornolyphant.etsy.com  I've been scouring the area for the best ways to find cute packaging from found and recycled materials.  So far it's been almost as fun to pack stuff up and send things off as it has been making them!

10.20.11
The view from where I currently work is amazing!  I'm going to miss this view when the farm season ends next week.

10.21.11
This is the neighborhood across the street.  It's my favorite place to unwind... these days...

One of my favorite fall pastimes is watching leaves fall! For the first time in my life I saw colored leaves falling along with snowflakes today.  It was strange and absolutely beautiful.

A nice way to travel...

10.28.11 Friday Afternoon..
This is what an amazing pizza place calls "Crazy Slices".  That is seriously considered 3 slices of pizza.  Each "slice" cost about $3.00.  Amazing!

Also... a piece of fried dough that size was only $2.50.  It also had totally awesome deco!  An oil painting  of Leonardo Dicaprio was spotted on the premises.

10.29.11 Saturday Aftermoon...
The farm is looking quite different today!

10.29.11
First time I've ever seen snow this early!

07.26.11 
Amazing spot to see celtic ladies playing some sweet music!

 08.10.11
Missing this…

10.05.11 
Lunabug!

10.6.11
Found this friend at my farm job!

10.15.11
Howling husky town

10.17.11
Best mountain biking partner ever!

 10.18.11
My workshop is super exciting right now.  I’ve finally set up a system that really works and I’m just bursting with ideas!

Allergy Free?

I wonder if it's possible to get rid of these pesky allergies.  I know that throughout my life sometimes they bother me a bunch and sometimes not at all.  Usually they're the craziest in the fall.

I've decided to embark on an experiment to track my progress and see if I can get my allergies to be less annoying.  Right now they've been at an almost extreme for the past two weeks.  Asthma attack the other morning - wheezing at night - sneezing constantly -red puffy face....the usual.

Here's my current regiment.

-nasal irrigation 2x a day
-maintain a normal sleep schedule (going to bed and rising at about the same time each day)
-hot compress on my sinuses atleast once a day
-drinking more water
-mullein tincture 2x a day
-eating kitcheri and only kitcheri for as long as I can last doing it

"In India kitchari - a soupy porridge made from rice and mung beans, lightly spiced with ginger, cilantro, and other spices - is considered a fasting food and is used to purify digestion and cleanse systemic toxins.   Ayurveda is the ancient Indian philosophy of health and well being. It means the ‘art of living wisely.’ In simple terms, Ayurveda is a holistic system which guides us so that we can live a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. It recognizes that we are all unique and focuses on lifestyle, yoga and herbal remedies and of course food.  Ayurveda believes that all healing begins with the digestive tract, and kitchari can give it a much-needed rest from constantly processing different foods while providing essential nutrients." I found that picture on the web somewhere

I'm currently on day 2 and am already noticing some difference.  The allergies are not gone but my head definitely does not feel as puffy.  Maybe it's because I'm mentally determined and that's helping.  Maybe it's the stuff I'm doing... I guess I'll wait and see.  All I know is that alot of my life revolves around food and when and what is my next meal so I think this will be quite challenging...

New update to my etsy shop!

Added a bunch of new projects that I've been working on.  Here's a peek at what's going on over there in my shop.

Check em' out here!

phew it's been a while....

I'm finally recovered after a two week bout with a peri-tonsilar abscess. It was horrible, I had to go to the e.r. but I'm happy to be feeling much better and luckily the antibiotics have worked so it hasn't creeped back up. I think I need to seriously consider getting my tonsils out!  Here's what I've been up to....

7.29.11 early morning

Woke up early to try to catch the sunrise…  It turned out to be a wet gray day but it was still really nice at the overlook looking across the pond.

7.29.11 afternoon

I’ve started volunteering at a visitor’s information center.  It’s a lot of fun and one of my duties is on Saturday I’m posted in the bog as a naturalist on station answering questions and explaining the unique ecosystem.  It's amazingly beautiful there and I've had alot of fun so far talking with the folks who visit!

 7.29.11 at the Barnum Brook Bog

Not a bad place to spend the day working.  Now only if I can find a job like this that pays!!!