Archive for November, 2007
November 29, 2007 at 1:51 pm · Filed under
For my fellow Joss Whedon fans who thought of Firefly when they saw the previous post, I just want to make sure you’re aware of the new show in development. It’s currently scheduled for Fall 2008, but of course the writers’ strike is a major factor.
I really hope that gets resolved soon. If I were a studio executive — even if I didn’t care about common sense, fairness or human decency — the prospect of trying to fill my immediate schedule with bottom feeding reality shows would be more than enough to convince me that writers deserve a share of money made from their work online or anywhere else.
November 29, 2007 at 1:27 pm · Filed under ,
“In yoga we learn that although you are in this body, it is also a carrier for the spark of divinity. An underlying fear of death and clinging to life are there in each of us. But we can learn to let go if we truly experience our actual, infinite capacity. You let go and let go and let go and let go, until all that is left is that tiny spark of divinity. We always talked about that spark as ‘the firefly.’” ~ Molly Kenny
From this beautiful article about the Samarya Center and their new Firefly Project. There’s a fundraiser Saturday night. I’m inspired to limit my UCU budget accordingly. I’ve spent enough time at Samarya to be really impressed with how they’re using yoga to “help anyone — no matter their age, finances, or state of health.”
November 26, 2007 at 2:22 pm · Filed under , ,
I got my photos up from our weekend in Portland with heather and mark. Much fun was had, in spite of the weather.
November 26, 2007 at 11:35 am · Filed under ,
I spent most of the day Friday sorting through my craft “corner,” aka craft disaster zone. I had lost the ability to find anything I needed and the mess had pretty much taken over the entire dining area. Ben and I were eating all our meals in front of the computer. Not cool.
I think I’ve finally gotten it to the point where I can work on things without making such a mess that clean-up takes more time than crafting.
This is the first fruit of my new space, reconstructed from an old shrug and two shirts. The remaining pieces of the shirts will be seen in future projects.
If you’re inspired to start cutting up and re-combining your old clothes, I highly recommend these two books:
- Generation T: 108 ways to transform a T-shirt by Megan Nicolay — Easy and creative re-crafting ideas to make shirts, skirts, accessories or even a wedding dress out of t-shirts. I made a few of her projects over the summer, but I don’t think I even took pictures. Need to dig those out and share.
- Reconstructing Clothes for Dummies by Miranda Caroligne Burns — Yes, it’s part of the “dummies” series, but I covered up most of the annoying cover with tape. It’s actually an excellent book full of freak-friendly projects and featuring the lovely Amy LeBlanc on the cover. In fact, she’s how I found out about it. Weirdly most of the color photos in the book are not at all inspiring IMHO. It seems like they were trying to tone down the designs to appeal to a wider audience. But when you start looking at the actual concepts and customizing them, it’s the best book I’ve seen so far on trashion.
Also, I’ve discovered a new crafty heroine that I have to share. Secret Lentil rocks my world! But she doesn’t like blue and I just can’t understand that at all.
November 14, 2007 at 3:50 pm · Filed under ,
evidence that we really are juicing regularly! future green juice on the left and future orange juice on the right. yum!
photo by yelahneb
November 14, 2007 at 3:42 pm · Filed under , ,
Once again I’m behind on updating the Green Index for the new season. There’s only a month of Fall left, so I doubt I’ll be switching things up too much for winter.
We did pretty well on our summer goals - especially if I count the last couple months!
- Learn more about green cleaning and disinfecting without bleach. I’ve been using a lot of vinegar (Burningman clean-up got me started on the joys of vinegar, and there’s a great list of “45 Things to Do with Vinegar” on pp 184-185 of How it All Vegan! (a must-have for vegans). We’ve also settled on a reasonably affordable brand of eco-friendly laundry detergent.
- Steam more, fry less. I’m doing this!
- Juice at least once a week. Pretty much.
- Buy less packaged food — but also work on keeping more healthy quick foods available, so I don’t skip lunch and we don’t eat out so much. Joining the CSA was great for this. As far as snacks, I’ve developed a fondness for pumpkin butter and Mary’s Be-Gone crackers. And I’ve been overjoyed to learn that I’m not actually allergic to bananas after all — at least not anymore. So along with the old stand-by (peanut butter and apples), I’ve got a pretty good selection of healthy snackfood around all the time. Also, Ben and I have been working on leaving leftovers instead of gobbling down every last morsel of whatever I cook for dinner. That helps ensure that I don’t eat burritos for lunch every day.
- Switch to more efficient lightbulbs. This one’s going to have to stick around for a while. None of our bulbs have burned out in ages, so it seems kind of silly to throw them away and replace them. Even if it would save energy.
I’ve added a couple new goals. One is to take my “recycled christmas” idea up a notch this year — making holiday gifts and using mostly recycled materials. I’ll probably also make some food/drink gifts since those are practical and fun. And we’ve talked about giving donations in the names of people who would appreciate it. We’ll probably buy a few gifts, but only in those cases where I don’t have a decent handmade idea.
The other goal is about charitable giving. I actually don’t like the word “charity.” There’s a wonderful quote somewhere about not believing in charity but in solidarity, but that’s a whole rant that will have to wait til another day. The gist is that we do give to several groups we believe in, but we’ve never sat down and figured out how much of our income we want to give away regularly. That’s something I want to commit to for 2008.
November 12, 2007 at 10:28 pm · Filed under
photo by arielmeow
My weeklong birthday celebration culminated in a lovely Friday evening with my Seattle ladies, hosted by Heather and Arielv. It was just enough of a surprise to be delightful, but totally stress-free and laidback. I can’t stop talking about how lucky I feel to have found my way into such a warm, intelligent and fabulous group of women.
Late in the evening Ben and Mark returned from their manly adventures and cracked Heather and I up by lipsynching to Journey.
photo by heather corinna
November 6, 2007 at 9:42 am · Filed under ,
Elly posted her photo set of Sunday’s graveyard shoot. There are tons of great ones in there. Funny how gothing out in a cemetery could be so much fun! Further back in the stream are her awesome pictures of the Bridge Motel graffiti.
November 5, 2007 at 10:36 am · Filed under ,
I had such an amazing weekend! After an exceedingly enjoyable Friday night with our friend Saundrah, Ben and I got up Saturday and went straight to the as-is section at Ikea. We were looking for one or two new dressers to replace the broken crap that’s been gunking up our bedroom. We scored something even better - a big bookcase that fits perfectly in the space. I couldn’t resist spending Saturday night reorganizing the whole room, and it looks gorgeous now. We finally have a grown-up bedroom.
Saturday afternoon I finally got my new tattoo. Most of it, anyway. I still have to go back in a couple weeks for the color but all the outlines are done and it’s utterly fabulous. Seattleites, I can’t say enough good things about Alexis at Laughing Buddha. She’s amazingly talented and just a very cool person.
Saturday night also featured Blade Runner: The Final Cut at Cinerama and late in the evening a surprise visit from the lovely Andrea.
Sunday morning Ben continued my new favorite weekend tradition by bringing me coffee in bed. We hung out in our gorgeous new bedroom for a long time until we finally had to get up and get ready for a photo shoot with Elly. The three of us went first to the old Bridge Motel in Fremont where some graffiti artists have been hard at work. Ben and Elly snapped away while I just soaked it in. There were owls involved.
Then we went to a cemetery in Queen Anne, where I modeled for them in the gothiest outfit I could assemble. I’ll let you know when they both get their sets up. Elly’s already posted her favorite picture here. Can’t wait to see the rest!
Finally, as the icing on the cake of a perfect weekend, my friend Cristy came over for dinner Sunday night, and we walked down to Harvard Exit to see Control, the new movie about Joy Division’s Ian Curtis. It was great catching up with Cristy, and the movie was beautifully filmed and surprisingly funny — at least for the first two-thirds or so.
It’s all just the beginning folks. My birthday’s tomorrow, and I plan on celebrating right through next weekend. Wheee!
