Tag: gift

I’m Crafty!

I’d love to explore artistic expression, but I’m too cheap to buy the supplies required for such an obsession. Frugality aside, I do not consider myself particularly creative or even artistic. On top of that, I don’t have a point of view that I just have to show the world. Even so, on occasion I can craft when given careful guidance and inspiration.

The Mollyanna Bowl
Some people, like my friend Anna, don’t wait for “someday” to do something that strikes their fancy. I discovered this the pleasant way while lingering at her home. We were perusing books on how to use recycled objects to make crafts with your kids. We agreed that the majority of the materials used in one book in particular were not recycled nor even recyclable. This is a bit of a sticking point since I’m not sure I’d want to keep or give away some of the crap, uh, crafts. I don’t like the idea of craft for craft’s sake because then you wind up with a bunch of JUNK and a house that smells like an old lady’s (that last part is purely conjecture on my part).

We did come across a braided rug technique used to make coasters. It seemed like something we might try this summer with the kids. Unfortunately, Anna had just given away her scraps to the best second grade teacher ever, Molly. We came up with the idea of using plarn (yarn made of plastic shopping bags). As I was still pondering, I realized Anna had already left the room, gathered supplies, and was cutting up shopping bags in strips. Plarn, we agreed, would make for a terrible coaster. We made bowls. This is my Mollyanna bowl full of CSA apricots.

I learned several things on this project.
* Plastic is a pisser to sew.
* Use clear thread and a thimble.
* Don’t prejudge the outcome.
* It’s okay to waste time like this. It has a name: experimentation.

The Art Teacher Utility Apron
Anna (again with the ANNA!) bought a bunch of oil cloth for use as a table cloth for her youngest child’s birthday. I’ve been looking at this material for some time. It’s colorful and functional and fantastic! Here Anna was buying it so casually and comfortably. Actually, what she bought was vinyl with a meshy backing, which is commonly called oilcloth though technically it’s not. Later, I saw a utility apron my friend betts* made for an auction at the school (a mix of traditional and contemporary oilcloth she bought in Mexico). Then betts* announced plans to make another apron for Molly while Anna was securing a Vy and Elle bag. Suddenly, I’m all about aprons and working with oilcloth or vinyl.


One day while sealing tiles for the Borton Environmental Learning Lab’s human sundial, the art teacher talked about how she identified with my son. She mentioned that she found it hard to take risks and get out of her comfort zone, but that she decided to do that this year with clay. Her clay work, well, I can’t express my thoughts on what she and the children did. It was moving to say the least. Plus, that she “saw” my kid out of hundreds and cared about his well-being – again, I can’t express my thoughts on that. After talking with her, I decided to take a risk and get out of my comfort zone. With the expert help of my pal betts* who made sure I didn’t sew the multiple pockets upside down, inside out, and backwards, I sewed this “oilcloth” utility apron for the art teacher. Isn’t it lovely? It took five hours minus buying time, but including the time it took to go home and get the foot pedal I’d left behind.

On this project, I learned:
* Make sure your foot pedal is stored with your sewing machine.
* Pay attention to the instructions, even when instinct tells you something else.
* Listen to betts* when she tells you three times, “don’t do that!” before she begs “please don’t do that.” What she means is, “your pocket may be right side up, but your seams will show.”
* I can top stitch!
* Slow and steady wins the race.
* Perfection isn’t a requirement.

Father’s Day Basket
Thanks to my mother-in-law I have cable (and high speed internet). One of our channels features networks that we don’t get in order to entice us to upgrade. I’ve never been thusly tempted, however, I was temporarily sidetracked from reality shows and Fox News by DIY. I rushed to the computer to look up their projects. Father’s Day was at hand and the kids wanted to make something for their dad. The DIY website provided several possibilities.


We made this basket out of old grocery sacks. You have to see it live on his mail table to fully appreciate it’s beauty. It looks great and when he’s tired of it, it’s totally recyclable. Our plan was to paint it, but as it was this took us three days.

I learned much with this project too.
* You need more than three days to weave and paint a basket with your kids.
* Rotary cutters make quick strips.
* It’s okay to BUY Dad a gift.

My future crafting goals are to make oilcloth lunch bags for my kids, sewing a shirt, and learning pottery from Mechelle and Anna. I’m giving myself years as a deadline for achieving any part of this as I still have an eight year quilt in the closet, a latch hook rug, and a cross stitch pillow turning to dust in the hall closet.

Garbage Soup Redeux

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I’m reposting a excerpt from a blog I wrote last year about Valentine’s Day. Partly because it got a good response and I like praise and partly because the holiday is a loser holiday for Jesse as I am never materially satisfied. Either it’s too much or not enough.

In the next few days I plan to come up with gift suggestions to make Jesse’s life easier like fair trade organic chocolate or bath and body products I might actually use or maybe a Prius limo. Honestly, I think I might like a composter even though I have no clue what I’d do with good dirt out here in the desert. Maybe one of you will see something to put on your list.

And now for old news…

++++++++++++++

February 12, 2007

Please don’t go out on Valentine’s Day and drop a chunk of change on flowers that were coated in pesticides, kept in a green house, and shipped across the country. What is that supposed to say? “I love you so muchly that I’m giving you something unnaturally begotten. Also, in its making a part of the world was poisoned. Lastly, even with the aspirin dissolving in the water, it’s doomed to die leaving nothing to show for the cash. THIS is the symbol of my love for you.” Please. Save your money. Buy a plant. I hear that bamboo palm is good for taking formaldehyde out of the air.

…

I am compelled to request that you forget the expensive roses! Instead, share this recipe for Garbage Soup, from a Sonoran Desert cookbook (with editorial from me). It would be good for your wallet, the environment, and an honest statement about the longevity of love.

INGREDIENTS:
water (the elixir of life)
vegetable waste (eggplant sounds like elegant fare for a Valentine dinner, but gack!)
coffee grounds (from the pot you shared over morning breath)
eggshells (you already walked on them so they are nicely crushed)
other similar kitchen waste (so not the shit you sling at each other like monkeys after the kids are in bed)
not grease (this is about living plants not the yummy goodness of slaughtered lambs)

DIRECTIONS: Chop waste in food processor or blender with equal parts water. Mix it up until it’s as convoluted as your fights. Bury soup around outer edges of plants along side the hatchet.

Commercial fertilizers can kill beneficial microorganisms in the soil. This recipe for plants can be used in lieu of those fertilizers. Can you feel the love?

Kakefuda Furoshiki

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I haven’t, and may not find time to, wrap my Christmas gifts. Maybe that’s a good thing because I just stumbled across this You Tube video.

This is furoshiki, the Japanese art of gift wrap. Kakefuda in Kyoto, Japan is such a cool place. Judging by the website, that is. Go see it. I visited Kyoto in 1991, but was so busy looking for a McDonald’s that I never saw such a store! Not that I would have had money to shop, but I could have looked.

Black Friday: A Mad, Mad World

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My kids have their toy catalogs circled in fat sharpie. Family have requested the lists. I know at least two people who plan to get a 4 a.m. head start on Black Friday. Bah Humbug. Sigh, not really. I like buying stuff and I’m not immune to marketing. I’m thinking about my shopping to-do list too.

I will do most of my purchasing for kids at Kid’s Center, which is nearly the best place on earth. Their website isn’t that exciting, but their tiny store is incredible. Their sales staff knows every thing about every great, fantastic, spectacular toy and book ever. Kid’s center is pricey, but soooo worth it. I’ll do a fair amount of shopping at other places.

A Greater Gift has a catalog of fair trade items from around the world. Purchases benefit the artisans directly. I have bought clever wooden puzzles and a few other things and have been pleased with the value and quality. It’s like shopping at the UNICEF store. For fair trade clothing, I shop at Fair Indigo. Think Land’s End with a conscience. Not much organic, but we all start somewhere.

Speaking of green choices, my sister-in-law Jennifer, the one in CA and not the one in TX, though I don’t think the one in TX would be opposed, just that I have two sisters-in-law named Jennifer and the one in CA turned me onto Greener Choices. It’s a Consumer Reports site that should aid in determining if a product is truly green or if it’s a green wash. The easiest green gift guide I have found is, of course, at Tree Hugger. You browse by the interest of the person on your list.

Heifer International has been my place to go for wedding presents of late, but not everyone appreciates a rabbit trio they don’t get to keep. Then again, if you are thinking of getting my kids rabbits, we would like to have them kenneled in another country. Donations to charities are perfect this time of year and great for the taxes in April. Speaking of which, I know a church in need of $90K towards their HVAC. You might be able to find their link to the left (the GSP website is temporarily down).

A Borton parent/pal, Alex, put me onto Etsy where people sell their folk art. You can even look at artists near you and purchase locally. There’s plenty of knitery, jewelry, and stuff you wouldn’t want. But there are also beautiful quilts, funky accessories, and, uh, stuff. I wouldn’t have a use for these gloves but you have to admit they are CLEVER.

In the past, I’ve tried to ask people to not buy us stuff. We don’t have the room, it sends the wrong message, blah blah blah, whatever my reasoning was. In retrospect, that’s a ridiculous selfish request because people like to give, especially at Christmas. Darned everyone’s generosity! I can only control my own choices and I won’t be fighting the crowd at the mall grabbing one of a million factory produced doo-dads that we “must have” and try to pass it off as specially chosen for the special people in my life. I will try to focus on the people on either end of my purchases – those from whom I buy and to whom I give.