Archive for April, 2007
April 11, 2007 at 11:25 pm · Filed under ,
This a goofy little project, but it took less than an hour so I don’t feel totally ridiculous. I keep a small container of bottlecaps that I think are pretty, and I’m always trying to come up with fun ways to use them.
For this, I just hammered some nails through the centers of the caps to make holes and stitched them on with a few silver sequins and beads. I like the suggestion of X and O. The black cuff is a scrap of fabric from an old pair of sweatpants that I’ve been slowly using up in various projects. I folded it in thirds and machine-stitched a bunch of uneven lines to create a nice padded, but not bulky, base.
April 11, 2007 at 11:18 pm · Filed under
I’ve been an avid follower of the web comic a softer world for years. I’d already been reading it for a long time when sweetie turned me on to the fact that there are “secret” messages when you mouse over the images. They often make the comic twice as good and sometimes provide a welcome laugh after the darker ones. A few weeks ago I discovered that a friend who reads the comic was similarly unaware. And she’s pretty geeky. (That’s a compliment.)
So consider yourself informed if you weren’t already, and go read the comic if you haven’t.
I love that hidden goodies online are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and even expected, along with easter eggs and google bombs and other computer nerd hijinx. Also, I’m not remotely an expert on this, but I think that including image descriptions helps with accessibility for people who require screen reading software. If they can’t see the image, they can at least get some information about whatever may not be clear from context.
April 11, 2007 at 9:03 am · Filed under ,
Ben’s back with his camera and I can finally start showing you all the things I’ve been working on. First, I finished two more logoware re-craft shirts, using the same method as the first one.
This one was actually a white shirt. I dyed it with some tea to make the color more subtle. It’s a bit washed out in this picture, but it’s kind of an earthy pale peach.
Detail:
Little owl with beady eyes on purple corduroy with silver star detail.
Detail:
I’ve also been working on another shirt for sweetie, but it’s not working out quite right. The shirt doesn’t have a logo - it has a weird glue stain irregularity and a small hole from my attempts to scrape off the glue. But when he’s wearing it, the patch just doesn’t look right on that spot. It needs to be higher, and it can’t go higher without exposing the stain and hole. So, I may have to use the patch on another shirt. He’s got several old black ones with logos I could cover, but it sucks because I like this color combo.
April 8, 2007 at 1:33 pm · Filed under ,
I updated my tagline. (Yeah, I know, I can’t help being a marketing geek. I’m not evil about it.)
Anyway, the line under the logo used to be live audaciously, but I decided to get the word holistic in there. Wholeness is what I’m going for in my life, and I think holistic living is audacious. It takes guts to embrace the full range of life’s possibility and to keep doing it even though the work is never done.
It’s so tempting to plough or tiptoe or slump through life just trying to cope with whatever comes along. We may find ourselves merely slinking around our fears or reeling toward the next object of desire. Sometimes that’s all we can manage and we have to forgive ourselves. But we’re screwed if we stop caring.
Trying to live consciously, to pay attention to our own needs and talents and passions, as well as those of the people around us and our larger communities and our entire planet, trying to see the whole picture and act accordingly—that’s frickin hard. But I get riled up about it anyway, and it’s what I feel driven to write about and it’s what this blog is really about.
That and my random whims and raves and musings. Thanks for reading. End of soapboxing.
April 6, 2007 at 10:41 am · Filed under ,
I took another reflexology class this past weekend. This one was about the structures of the foot and lower leg. We spent a lot of time talking about the bones and joints and the way the weight coming down each leg is supposed to be distributed evenly. Each foot bears weight like a tripod between 1) the big toe and medial ball, 2) the outer toes and lateral ball, and 3) the heel.
Here’s an exercise for you to get a feel for how you’re balancing your weight:
- Stand up straight with your bare feet hip-width apart (mountain pose in yoga).
- Tune in to where you’re holding your weight. If you don’t feel balanced, shift around until you do. Think about the tripod analogy. Lean forward a bit and try to center your weight over the balls of your feet and then lean back again to stabilize on the heels.
- Try lifting your toes, spreading them, and pressing them back down. Is this difficult?
- Try shifting your weight to one side and lifting the other leg. How easy is it to maintain your balance on one foot?
- Try the other side. Is it easier, harder, or about the same?
I’ve had issues since childhood with feet that roll inward (pronation) and hyperextended knees. I was extremely pigeontoed and basically held on with my toes when I was learning to walk. I’ve been working on this for a long time. I pretty much forced myself to stop being pigeontoed when I got old enough to feel self-conscious about it. Now the only remnant is that my right foot starts to point inward when I’m tired. But I think my remaining issues are to blame for a lot of my lower back discomfort. This weekend gave me clarity on exactly what I need to do to re-educate my feet, re-train my posture, and get my body into balance.
In addition to reflexology and conscious attention, I really need some core strengthening. I like my little pot belly, but the weak muscles behind it make my posture tend towards saggy and caved-in. Anybody have any exercise tips? I know pilates is awesome for core strengthening, but I find the repetition boring and I’m not into the equipment. Yoga helps, but I’ve only been in a few classes in which the teachers emphasized core work.
Here are a few items I found on YouTube:
Oh, I almost forgot about hooping! Fabulous for core strength and not remotely boring. I’ll have to do a little post soon to refer you to some of my favorite hooping resources (those of you who haven’t already been initiated by Ariel). Now that the weather’s warming up, it’s time for me to finally learn some tricks.
April 4, 2007 at 7:41 pm · Filed under ,
My amazing friend Nikole has officially launched her etsy shop, and it looks fantastic. Go and treat yourself!
April 4, 2007 at 11:55 am · Filed under ,
You may think I’m neglecting this blog a little. It’s not true! I’ve been very busy, but in fact I’m nurturing all kinds of exciting - to me, at least - posts for you.
Most will have to wait almost a week (wahh!) because the various crafty projects I’m wrapping up can’t be photographed until Sweetie gets back from NYC with the camera. But I’m planning a major spring cleaning this weekend and will be passing on a few green cleaning tips. (You’re on the edge of your seat right?) Plus, more reflexology tips and a report on my upcoming Infinity Facial this Friday with the allegedly amazing Fauzia Morgan, who is married to a former co-worker of mine and who I had the pleasure of chatting with at the recent jumpsuit party. She and I were pretty much the only sober people there - me because I had a cold and a reflexology class the next morning, she because she’s a paragon of healthy holistic living. I’ll be giving her a reflexology session next week and if I’m very very lucky she’ll like it enough to trade with me in the future. My skin would be so happy!
For now, I’ll just tell you quickly about my deck garden, which finally sprang into action on Monday. As usual, I’m focusing on herbs: two types of rosemary, two types of sage, thyme, lavender, mint, and basil. A couple of these survived from last year in spite of two seasons of neglect, but most are new plants and the basil is germinating in a greenhouse tray right this very minute. There are also some daffodils, an anemone, and, if the seeds sprout, lobelia, poppies, and wildflower mix. Plus by some miracle four roses still survive from the larger collection I inherited when our neighbor Jen moved into her new condo last year. I killed the rest of them off with a remarkably effective combination of ignorance and willful dereliction of duty. Roses are just so intimidating!
April 4, 2007 at 11:16 am · Filed under
Since this decade is more than half over already, I’m finding it increasingly disturbing that we haven’t agreed on a name for it. Apparently, according to my beloved Wikipedia, the term Noughties (pronounced like “naughties” and based on “nought” as in zero) is widely accepted in Britain. Here we’re still fumbling around everytime the desire for a shorthand arises. The Two Thousands certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue like the Eighties or Nineties did.
One possibility for the upcoming decade (2010-19) is the “Teens.” I find it amusing to imagine that history may eventually record the prime period of my life as the Noughties and the Teens. It sounds so lascivious and immature. Definitely not the evolved modern age we’d like to be living in. But kind of fun too.
April 1, 2007 at 11:12 pm · Filed under
I thought it would be funny to switch out my logo with something like this for all fools day and see if anyone noticed, but I was in class again all weekend and I flaked. Maybe you’ll enjoy it anyway…
Happy Monday!
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