The pitter patter of progress

Look! Just for you I created a fun survey where you can tell me which type of column you'd like to see on our house.(Woo hoo! Lucky you!!)

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Though I'm not sure this picture says a lot, compare and contrast with this one and see all the work we've done.

Mabel went to Nana's and Paw Paw's so I thought we'd spend the weekend solely working on the columns, getting the project finished. There are, with us at least, certain methods to our DIY madness and sometimes we have to be honest with ourselves about these projects. Money is limited, and it is the facet we most often have to remember.

Despite my hope for a big unveil this morning, we had a budget set aside of less than $80. Most of that ended up going into reciprocating saw blades. We bought a $20 one meant for cutting iron which turned out to be overkill; a $3 blade for thick metal was actually the blade we needed. When you're talking about an $80 project, $23 takes a big cut (no pun intended). It didn't leave us enough to get the wood for the facade of the columns, and we decided to wait to get that wood anyway. For a nominally larger cost, we can get a higher grade board from a local lumber yard rather than from the big box store. A higher grade board will mean less knots and mars, making the finished column smoother and much prettier.

This coming weekend we'll both have paychecks to dole out for the finishing wood and trim, so until then our yard will remain (as one friend deftly put it) one trampoline shy of redneck gold. All of that is to give a glimpse inside how our renovations work: with time, ingenuity, and a little bit of spending money. Oh, and a generous Nana to keep the little one distracted and happy all weekend--essential to success.

It took an entire day to get the iron work down and the 4 x 4 (actually 2 2x4s laminated and screwed together) cores for the new columns up. That "entire workday" happened on Saturday, after I spent 6 hours volunteering at the community garden. My body still hurts.

On Sunday Charlie mended the fence while I built a small retaining wall from some 4 x 4s we had on hand. Having the dogs in the fenced area most of the time, they've created paths where they run laps around the perimeter of the space. That path, even on a gently sloping hill, has created an erosion problem which, in turn, created soil build up around the fence at the bottom of the hill. The soil build up pushed the fence every which way, making it lean and wobble. Once again the fence is perpendicular to the ground and we're already seeing and hearing the pitter patter of progress.

down wind of chemical stench

My lengthy dislike for Scotts MiracleGro products started when I was just getting interested in gardening. Scotts was suing TerraCycle for using green and yellow on their packaging, though I never really believed that was all it was about. Perhaps a small start up company with a great idea for reused packaging and simple organic ingredients was putting a hurting on a major corporation's profits. Whatever it was, Scotts image seemed like the popular football star stuffing a nerdy kid in a locker.

Companies like Scotts promote chemical use in the garden, persistent chemicals that perpetuate reliance for gigantic yields and "weed-free" gardens. They promote the idea that a singular plant (grass) is the only acceptable basis of a beautiful, lush yard. A single variety plant space, such as a weed free lawn, is known as a monocrop, and a monocrop's lack of diversity can create all sorts of issues that need other synthetic products to resolve.

I won't get into the many uses of weeds...well maybe for just a second--some of those weeds might replace your prescription medicine, others could be pulled up and used to make an organic plant food, yet others simply feed the wildlife in your yard. Perhaps if the critters had natural forage they wouldn't go after your tomatoes and you wouldn't need that Scotts brand pesticide after all.

The more I learn about gardening, the more I learn that popular kid in the green and gold uniform had a few unsavory secrets. Enter stage left: Monsanto, wealthy, smooth-talking hip best friend to Scotts. Monsanto's own GMO-tainted politics does nothing to endear me to Scotts. 


To put my feelings into perspective, let's talk about something most people have some level of concern about: the honeybees. We've all heard about the rapid decline of bee populations and what will happen if they keep mysteriously dying. Bees an accessible environmental issue: less bees, less pollination, less productive crops, less food, higher food prices, food shortages...you get the idea. Scotts sells all sorts of weed killer monocrop the hell out of your yard. Make it all grass, get rid of that nasty clover...that nasty clover that bees find so useful as a source of food. Yeah, food, that little thing that keeps us all alive. Of course, Scotts' BFF Monsanto, the company that sues farmers whose crops have accidentally cross-pollinated with Monsanto GMO crops. The GMO crops that may or may not contribute to the decline of bee populations, certainly contributing to the loss of monarch butterfly populations (another handy insect that pollinates plants).

And then the National Wildlife Federation announced its partnership with Scotts. Frankly I took the news personally. I felt like an old friend went and made out with the dude that used to tease me every day about being flat-chested. Betrayal.


How do you feel about the partnership? Care, don't care, wish I'd saved my breath for some pretty furniture and lovely pictures?

* * *


You Grow Girl and Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens discuss the new partnership on their blogs.

links worthy of collecting

If you're interested but don't know where to start learning about what SOPA/PIPA could mean to you, this is a great article.

La porte rouge makes me want to draw and paint horses in snow.

I guess I'm a little late to the OldBrandNew party, but I'm so glad I made it!

Since we're knee deep in cold and flu season, the Numen site has a beautifully simple site full of herbal remedies and resources for natural approaches to healing. (Thanks so much for the link Shari!)

My Simpler Life's Declutter Calendar makes decluttering your entire house a doable task in tiny little time segments. 

Not a lot to say this morning, the weekend was fun and {as always} too short. We need more play time around our house. But after a weekend of renewed interest in the work we do, I have a brief thought to start your week:

Do what you believe, believe what you do, and maintain a natural curiosity all the while. 

Do you take this approach to life? How so?

the underbelly of the Sneak

I've been getting up at 5 every morning to work on printing orders for shops. I've worked out 3 days this week. I've gone to work my desk job every day and then home to work my real job (mama-ing). Then it's time for laundry, dinner, and any other cleaning I can fit into 2 minute increments.

I'm tired. (Enough with the whining, I know.) We're supposed to take a quick little jaunt to the beach, but that's all up in the air now, thanks to Irene. She seems to want to see the NC coast, too. On a non-related (but far prettier) note, another skirt:

Since I had Fat Roll Friday once before, I thought I'd share the strength part of my Wednesday and Friday workouts this week.  We do a 45 minute work out that consists of a 15 minute warm up, 15 minute skill building and then a 15 minutes of strength building. I'm writing it out because it makes me look tougher than I really am.

Wednesday: 90 sit ups, 160 lunges and 68 25-lb kettle bell push presses in 15 minutes. My bottom hurts, but that's it! A few months ago I would've been immobilized.

Since Wednesday's lunges didn't do me in then today's 11 minute workout of 60 sumo lifts (15 pounds each arm), 120 15 pound kettlebell rows, and 120 side lunges with a 15 pound kettlebell probably will. Yeah, I can hardly move around and today I've already run upstairs and downstairs at work more than I usually do in a whole month.

To distract you from the pain, I present to you some feathery culottes. If for no other reason, simply the word "culottes" should make you smile. Say it with me: CULOTTES!

There you have it. Some pretty, some ugly, just a bit of life from the underbelly of the Sneak!

Just what I want

I was reading Lizzy House this morning and came across this little morsel to chew on:

Are you living the life that you want? Are you taking steps to make what you want so? Is any of this really as complicated as we make it?

I don't think it has to be complicated, except for maybe deciding the path to choose. Since Good Magazine tweeted a similar question* I've been thinking lately about how incredible my life is. I love making things without the pressure of income. Sometimes I wish I had more time to garden (or to garden more, or to learn more about gardening or to learn to be a better gardener...you get the point) or cook. Sometimes I wish our house was organized and spotless, or we had fancy furniture and more refined taste. Sometimes I even wish I had blond hair. Often I wish I had more endurance to run, a better understanding of CSS and the ability to wow people with dazzling conversational skills.

But really, when it boils down to it, I'm surrounded by amazing people. I have a decent job with health benefits, and though it's not the most exciting job in the world it is a good job with good people. I have an amazing family (not just limited to, but certainly including C + M), and I have the time and the means to do my hobbies. I have found many things that I love, things that enhance my life and all of these things--the people, the animals, the activities--keep me on a path of contentedness.

There are amazing times and terrible times, but as long as the majority of the time is somewhere in between, well, my life is just what I want it to be.

*from @good Q: If income didn't matter, what job would you pursue? #GOODasks

How Persistent is Persistent?

As a Master Composter, I'm part of an email circle with others in the program, and a recent one was from a man who planted a garden to feed his limited income family. He was writing to find out what sort of remediation would get his field back to a gardening state. Without publishing the entire email, he is, in short, frustrated.

I have got a ruined field that I spent two plus years creating from a wooded plot. Two years of incredibly backbreaking work, thousands of dollars for tree removal, fencing, etc -  not too mention months of seedling care, soil amending six plus months of rock and stone removal, etc.

The main suspect? Persistent herbicide. There are a handful of herbicides used on pasture/livestock forage, grain fields and some vegetable crops. Since they're approved for horse and livestock pastures, they're consumed (along with all those vitamins and minerals that make meat so tasty), passed through the animal in pee and poop and still remain active  even after the grass clippings and animal waste have been composted. The chemicals remain in the soil, and are taken up and redistributed by rainfall. Breakdown can take anywhere from 30 days to several years. **

Now there's a new herbicide in the neighborhood, one called Imprelis. It's currently available to lawn care professionals for weed prevention, but Scotts Miracle Gro is working with DuPont (Imprelis manufacturer) to develop a home-scale application, one approved for the lawn loving home owner.

The USCC [US Composting Council] is informing the composting industry and consumers that grass from treated lawns could end up in a compost pile, and unlike most herbicides, Imprelis will survive the composting process and still be active in the finished compost. *

Currently Imprelis has a 9 page instruction booklet. As it becomes available to the public, however, I'm wondering how obvious the warnings will be.

“One problem is that the warning is on page 7 of a 9 page label,” remarked Dr. Stuart Buckner, Executive Director of the USCC, “and unfortunately not everyone reads or follows the label. We are requesting the USEPA initiate a special review of the registration due to the likelihood of residual herbicide levels in compost damaging non-target plants.”*

Does that mean I shouldn't drive around town collecting bags of grass clippings for my compost? Should I find out who does the landscaping for lawns immediate to ours and see what sort of herbicides they use? How persistent is persistent?

How many people read warning labels? How many people know what goes into the trash, recycling, and what should be taken to hazardous waste? How many people care that the grass they put at the curb is picked up by the city for compost, and irresponsible disposal of "tainted" waste could end up in my food?

I found this article to be well-written and informative.

* Quotes from the US Composting Council statement on their website compostingcouncil.org.

**NC Cooperative Extension Herbicide Carryover

Will you recognize success when it smacks you in the face?

Do you have those moments where you {even just for a half second} think *Oh crap! I need to update my twitter feed, then facebook, new patterns for Spoonflower, relist on etsy, new prints on etsy, oh that print is so last year. Scrap that one, I need new products, narwhals are hot, maybe I should draw a narwhal...*

Then reality sinks in and you remember *Hey! I'm not a making machine. I need to make things that represent me authentically. I need to make work that resonates within.*

These thoughts come and go monthly, and I need reminders that I truly do believe this. So today my mantra is not to worry about what others do. Success is defined by the individual, not by following a series of steps. What works for you may not work for me.

How do you define success? Can you recognize it when it happens?

let the celebrations begin!

A few weeks ago I made Chocolate Pumpkin Bread to empty up some cabinet space. The bread was a hit and disappeared quickly. I tried to remake it last night and . . . well, let's just say I missed a few ingredients and the second batch was pretty bland. I think it's going to end up becoming Martha Stewart's Chocolate Bread Pudding.

In reality, though, flavorless pumpkin bread will soon be forgotten even if it becomes something spectacular. The food is just the backdrop for what this Thanksgiving week is all about. I've spent the past few days thinking about synonyms for thankfulness, reflecting on what I'm grateful for, what graciousness means and how to best say it. What it boils down to? There are many things in life that make me happy, but the people around me are really what bring me joy. So this Thanksgiving I'd like to say it as loudly as possible: I'm so thankful to have you in my life! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Being cheap never felt so good!

We had an emotionally difficult weekend, mostly due to exactly what caused this rant. And while I left it so vague to drive the point home to anyone who may not have thought about the place for technology in a still-polite society, it was "inspired" by things going on in our home life. I'm sure, you, dear readers, know your manners, though. Please don't take the rant personally. It's all part of purging the toxicity.

All that turmoil aside, as emotion settles into goals for the future, we had an incredible, quiet, cozy, satisfying {. . . you get the point, right?} weekend. No going out to fancy restaurants or expensive movies, just quiet time at home with hobbies and each other.

Funny enough, our hobbies are frugal approaches to luxury goods. Chemical-free, naturopathic medicine from the fancy health food store? Nah. Healthy snacks all wrapped in hermetically sealed bags shipped from California (or who knows where) that line the upper shelves of the grocery store whispering, "Buy me! I'm good for you! I'll make you feel good about snacking!" Yummy! But no, thanks. Just how long have you been trapped in that little plastic bag? Micro-brewed beer at $5 a pint? Hmmm, yeee. . .nope.

Charlie started a bock beer, this time experimenting with adding a little rosemary. {If you grow rosemary you know it's one of those things you can never use up.}

I put the elderberries into watered down Everclear to preserve their beneficial properties, now I just need to shake it up everyday until it's time to strain out the pulp and save the liquid for cold and flu season. At that point I'll divide it into 2 bottles, add honey to one and leave the other unsweetened. We used Honey Gardens Apitherapy's elderberry elixir when our house got the summer cold that was going around; it was amazing! C took it as he started feeling the aches and never got the full-blown cold. I took it the day the cold hit full-force and it was gone the next day. M was too young for honey, though. At $12 a bottle {and you use one 4 oz. bottle a day} we aren't really in the position to keep buying it, so this {I hope!} will be a more frugal fix.


I took the peaches and apples in the fridge that we kept forgetting about, peeled 'em, sliced 'em, and stuck them in the new old food dehydrator. {We found one at an estate sale that has a thermostat and a fan in it! Super fancy! Out goes the old new old one!} No little plastic pouches to toss out, either! In fact, the natural packaging {read: the peels} they came in went straight to the chickens as a sweet treat that will become poop to nourish the fig trees.


When everything is all said and done, the beer is in the bottles and we're chowing down on some sweet dried fruit long after the oppressive summer heat has dissipated into a cool, reinvigorating fall, we'll still have these skills. The metaphorical black cloud will lift and we'll still have each other. We'll toast the life changes that reminded us to focus on the good things all around.

Cheers to being cheap! It never felt so good!

Monotony

On Monday, the day after C got home, I got up, took a shower, did some hair removal, painted my nails, put on a dress and heels, a couple swipes of mascara, styled my hair and put on a dab of the fancy perfume he gave me for Christmas.

Nothin'. Nada. I said, "Do you like my new shoes" and got an, "Oh, I didn't realize they were new. They're cute."

How do you get your Mr to notice you when you're in the thick of acclimating to a little one or in the middle of monogamy monotony?

Credit where credit is due: OPI "It's a girl" nail polish, Easy Spirit sandals (so cute in person, I don't think this picture does them justice, and they don't feel like heels. at. all.), Ruche dress, currently out of stock, but I bet he would've noticed me in that gorgeous green!

For the first time in recent history I stayed up late making art. all. weekend. long. Finished some pieces and didn't like them, so I started over.

Ditto for Hi-C. He finished his part of the newest collaboration with Jess G--a triptych! Guys, mine is coming, I promise.

And there is a top secret (well, not so top secret: clue # 1, clue # 2) project in the works. It's rad fo shiz, so keep your eyes and ears open for more info in the near future. In the mean time I gotta get some work done. . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Happy Monday!

The summer recipes at Anson Mills have been posted, and the tortillas are definitely on my list to try. The beginning narrative is wonderful, but also makes me wonder what kind of farmer lives a "the crops have been planted so I'm sitting here at the beach house" kind of life? I would like to sign up for that life, please?

I've got 2 gallons of milk in my fridge with the name Cheddar on them. First, the cultured buttermilk must become a mesophilic culture, though.

Figuring out with to do with the red freestone peaches in my fridge. Canned for a bit of summer in the winter? Peach butter?

This past weekend we made: 6 quarts of marinara sauce, 1 quart and 6 pints of relish, and bottled 48 Sierra Nevada style pale ales. Sounds like there's a party on the horizon, huh?

And yes, there is art happening all over the place in our house, getting prepared for (read: freaking out about going to...) Renegade. But I've decided to keep all of these projects top secret. . .at least for as long as I can keep a secret because I'm not so good at keeping my own secrets.

Thank you for your kind comments as I publicly displayed my personal doubts about this trip. I'm trying to remain in check. The anxiety monster, however, hasn't been listening to self assurance. Just gotta keep doing, though, right? That's what we all do: keep trying.

And if you're so inclined for an art investment, the Old School Show at Uppercase is available online. My work is on page 2. Word on the street is, my pre-ordered copies of the show books are on their way into the US right now. I will have a few with me at Renegade for sale as well, just because it's such a rad show I think people will like it. When I say rad, I actually mean RADICAL. If you feel so inclined, you can preview it here.

In other news, I'm tired of tripping over materials in my studio, so as I get the time and motivation, they're being added to the etsy shop. So far it's just a giant roll of oilcloth, but there will be more. Oh yes, there will be lots more.

Hello Monday, you sad sop of a beast.

Okay, actually Monday isn't that bad, but why isn't the weekend longer? It's like one of those falling dreams, that always seems to happen just as you're dozing off, and your body reacts and jaunts you awake.

I just want another few minutes of nap, Monday, just wait a few more hours for the work week to begin again.

This past weekend wasn't car free at all, which I missed badly. No long bike rides. I spent Friday night with my sister at the bookstore (and left with Lena Corwin's new book as well as a Sarah Vowell book on the super-clearance table for $3!), then Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market, talking food with anyone who'd lend an ear. I went home with a bag of yellow peaches, Bosky Acres Chevre (that tastes a lot like cream cheese--it's my newest addiction, so so good), fresh eggs, and garlic. Not a whole lot, but all of it is 100% flavor.

A little cooking, including biscuits stuffed with a honey/chevre filling and Sunday morning pancakes smothered in fresh fruit from the wild blueberry patch down the street and peaches from the farmer's market. A little computer time, adding to W&tS one of what will be a series of pinhole images Hi-C took with his growing collection of homemade pinhole cameras. It's amazing to watch the process--so foreign and fascinating to me.

This article, via please sir, is a perfect pairing with my Modish post on Friday. Is it a reaction to modern events such as the war in Iraq and Al Gore's popular movie?

With this ongoing theme of paring down, I have some exhilarating news (for me, at least) to share:
As of tomorrow, my 11 year old credit card* will be paid off, after an extensive battle with a 24.9% finance rate. Yes, folks, you read that right. My interest was actually that high.

I also just noticed one of my flickr contacts now has an etsy shop. She's partnered up with her friend Vicki, and they opened their art photography shop last week. Go check it out--her eye for color and texture is amazing, and I love that they're offering larger sizes, too! You'll love the timelessness of each piece, I promise!

*This was a card I signed up for because the store I was working for had a MasterCard promotion, and the corporate owners pressured the managers to have a certain percentage of customers sign up for the card. Obviously not many people go for that gimmick, so all of us employees signed up for them. At 19, it was my "new clothes fund". I have used it less than 5 times in the past 5 years--if that gives you any inkling of what a battle it has been for me.

In celebration of the financial freedom I will gain tomorrow, there will be giveaways!
Are you ready?

in all actuality there were no ski masks involved

I thought it was only appropriate, this is Wolfie and the Sneak, after all, to show Wolfgang's (top) and Bill Murray's (middle) new summer do's!

It took a little bit of getting used to, on both of their parts, but I think they're settling into the short hair, appreciating the length during all this heat!

Several weeks ago (or was it last week?) I totally lost patience in the garden and just started planting seeds with total abandon. There was just too much organization and it drove me nuts, so I tucked all the leftover Giant Midori Soybeans, Clemson Spineless Okra and Burgundy Okra seeds wherever I thought they might fit. Seems the beans are coming up best around the corn and squash. There must be something to that 3-Sisters theory after all.

Me and the Mr spent the afternoon hand watering from the rain barrels, chatting about silly stuff, and calling each other Farmer.

Kris, the neighbor, brought over a big bag of squash. BIG squash. Lots of it.
I have yet to see a squash. I'm about to have it out with them things. But we have fresh squash, she gave us a ton of it, and oh boy, I can't wait to make Farmer Chuck grill it. ahem.

Other silly antics ensued (unfortunately. . . or fortunately? none of it involved drawing) and later on that night we donned black ski masks jumped in the pick-em-up and ran about town grabbing full bags of grass clippings. Farmer C nabbed 2 by bike (Do you see that trailer? Isn't it the hottest homemade bike trailer ever?) and I got 4 by truck. The Mr. drove the getaway vehicle. We were really covert and no one called the police.

Seems I have some major mulching to do this evening. . .or maybe I'll make crackers to have with the goat cheese I'll be making tomorrow. (Do you hear my gears turning?!?)

Using grass clippings will be my first step towards permaculture, which is an exciting prospect. I have to admit, I've been composting a while, but put all of the compost down to create a new bed for the hops (which are quite happy I did that!) and didn't save any for the vegetables. But if you couldn't tell, I have enough distractions that I'm not quite fully depressed.

An edible oasis of chill

It's interesting the number of sites I've found about living a self-sustaining lifestyle in an urban scene, with an identical vantage point to my own. But I'm a suburbanite. I can't afford to live closer to town, and on one hand I'm stalwartly inclined to live as city dwellers do, but am in a place with astoundingly less support and understanding.

Not only am I contributing to sprawl (well, I can rationalize that the house is 65 years old and not part of a new cookie cutter neighborhood), I am a commuter. I contribute to the problem. I feel bland and identity-less, like the neighbors in Edward Scissorhands, before all the cool haircuts and strange topiaries. Because where I live people don't like things that you don't buy new. Seems this goes for cars, clothes, and lawn ornaments.

Which is fine. I don't have much to say to that. But it's not a suit that fits me and definitely one I'm not ready to wear yet, if ever.

So back to the car free weekend. My mom and I went shopping (which somewhat cheated the car free weekend since I rode my bike to her house then we drove all over town*) and stopped by all the fancy schmancy garden centers and I ended up with 8 artichoke plants and a Haworthia (reinwardtii?). Those may not mean much to you, but to me the artichokes mean that much less yard. Bit by bit the suburban lawn will become an edible oasis of chill.

The Royal Gardens -- Elizabeth --an $8 Haworthia, plus several other tempting succulents. gorgeous burro's tails outside, but nothing else so tempting I needed to grab it at the time.

Garden Secrets -- Southpark --2 4 inch pots of nasturtiums and 4 4inch pots of artichokes, I dug through all the plants to find the ones with multiple plants in the pot to get the most of my money. They were $2.50 per pot, so $15 plus tax.

Later, on Saturday, we took the city bus into town to meet the younger of my 2 older brothers for dinner and then to see They Might Be Giants. Which rocked my world and mysteriously healed a nagging headache. How's that for awesome?

Earlier in the week I spent $13 on a 2nd 75 foot soaker hose; $5 on a cheapy cheap metal trellis for the grapes (the heat makes me feel inclined to believe Mr. C will not be building the wooden arbour he had in mind for them). as well as $22-ish on the new birdbath.

Yard total for last week after tax was approximately $68, not including the city water used.

But all weekend we drove off less than 1/20 of a gallon of gas, and it was to get the made-from-scratch chocolate birthday cake from our house to my parents' Sunday evening, approximately 51 hours after we parked the car on Friday. That, my friends, is a pretty big deal for a yearnin-to-live-urban-suburbanite.

*On our journey we stopped by Crate and Barrel, where I finally got to see my beloved beverage jar in person. Our first date.