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

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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?

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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"

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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!