Froze His Face Off

Months ago I found this groovy Buddah-like bust at the Goodwill. I had to have it. I bought it, took it home and found what I thought was the perfect place for it on the back steps.



Last month we had a few days of freeze-your-butt-off cold. The mini-pond iced over. All the plants died. And my little statue froze his face off. It's too bad too. I really liked it and don't quite know what I  can do about it.

Word.

click on the image to (slightly) enlarge

See, you can make jewelry out of anything.

Demispiral Earrings

Well, I was trying to break the record for the longest time going without listing anything new in my Etsy shop, but I don't think I made it. Yeah, it's been a while. No excuses, just laziness. But I did it! I finally listed my Demispiral Earrings.

I've been making these for a while and selling them at the Portland Saturday Market. They are a very popular style for me and I've been meaning to get them in my online shop and well... Anyhow, these little beauties are sort of like gauged earrings for people who don't have/want gauged ears. Just slip them in your earring hole and you're good to go. Demispiral Earrings can now be found in my Etsy Shop.

Post Election Humor

Self Portrait in Pumpkin

 I haven't carved a pumpkin in a long time. This was lots of fun! It looks like me don't you think (see the curl!)? Happy Halloween!

Snowshoeing Anyone?

A blanket of fresh snow covers Mount Hood Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010, as seen from Portland, Ore.

Photo: Rick Bowmer / AP

They Left the Idiot-House Doors Open Again

Jonathan Moseley, a Virginia attorney and O'Donnell's campaign manager during the primary, is offering a "$1,000 reward to anyone who can find the phrase 'Separation of Church & State' in the US Constitution." Moseley's press release goes on to assert that freedom of religion can't exist if church and state are separate, that teaching evolution is teaching "superstition," and that many Supreme Court justices agree with O'Donnell that we need to revert to a government by the Constitution as it was originally written.
More here: http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201010260025

Today's Reality Check: Cholera in Haiti

A woman screams in agony in the back of a transport truck for the loss of her husband outside of St. Nicolas Hospital after a cholera outbreak hit the rural countryside October 22, 2010 in St. Marc, Haiti.

Photo: Frederic Dupoux / Getty Images

Meet Morty

This is Morty. He came to live with me recently. I think he's adorable. He's found a comfortable spot for himself in the sunroom.









Morty is the creation of Reed Designs from their Etsy shop. He was featured on the front page and I had to have him (it's the only time I've ever bought anything off the front page). I was also proud to be Reed Designs first sale.

Yup.

Um, yeah.

Lìo

Today's Reality Check: Toxic Sludge Wipes Out Seven Towns

 

"Burning-hot toxic mud blankets towns: Tunde Erdelyi holds her cat after toxic red sludge five feet high flooded into her home in Devecser, Hungary. A rupture at an alumina plant reservoir resulted in flooding that engulfed seven towns, causing at least four deaths, six missing and 120 injured, in what Hungarian officials are calling an "ecological catastrophe." The mud burned several people through their clothes."

Photo: Bela Szandelszky / AP

Philosophy from Bob the Squirrel

Reaping Dinner from the Garden

Stepped out the back door the other night and into the garden to collect a few ingredients for my dinner. The garden is producing some yumminess! For my casserole, I harvested a couple of eggplants, a few potatoes and some basil. Muy delicioso!

I also picked some corn. Although sweet, the ears are pretty small and, um, have issues. Anyone know what causes this and how to make it better for next year?

My Ring is on Design Sponge!

Design Sponge did an article about DIY weddings featuring Angie and Tyson's great gig. At the very bottom of the lovely scroll of photos is a picture of the Forget Me Not bow ring (available in my Etsy shop) that Tyson bought for Angie for an engagement ring last December. They got married in July. I'm excited to see the great wedding they put together, and to see my ring on Design Sponge!

Great Neighbors and a Growing Garden

When you buy a house, you can have inspections for almost all aspects of the property. The one thing that you can't account for and that's a total crapshoot are the neighbors. Well, I totally lucked out. I have great neighbors! This one will walk the dog, that one has power tools I can borrow, that one will bring in the garbage cans if I'm away and my best neighbor is Karen (and her husband Chip). Karen is the dream neighbor. She takes care of Koko while I'm at the Saturday Market (that's a whole other blog post!), always offers help with this or that, AND is gardening my side yard. Their yard is completely landscaped, so when I offered my yard for a veggie garden she thought it was a great idea. The two photos to the left are the before and current states of the side yard. It probably was always gardened, but hasn't been in several years. It was all grown over and weedy. Now it's alive with yumminess!

 

The photo above shows what we planted (I might have missed something or other). We went a bit nuts with all that we put in, but we are learning a lot. As very novice gardeners we are feeling our way along, it's been fun and we are starting to see the fruits - and veggies - of our labor.  Because of our cold wet spring, things have been slow to get started, but everything is showing itself and will hopefully take off now that the warm sunny weather is finally here.

Berries In The Garden

A Teachable Moment?

This way to the BP exhibit: A worker attaches stickers resembling oil immersed in water to a tank at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. A new exhibit at the aquarium - intended to showcase the beauty of the Gulf of Mexico with sharks, rays and other fish - will instead be devoid of life to underline the environmental impact of the massive oil spill.

Photo: National Mississippi River Museu / AP

Oil Covered Pelicans

"Oil-covered pelicans found off the Louisiana coast and affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, wait in a holding pen for cleaning at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana"
REUTERS/Jose Luis Magana/Greenpeace/Handout

A weirdly beautiful photo of a horrific scene.

Keeping Tradition Alive

Andean men cross the Qeswachaka hanging bridge across the Apurimac river, at the southern province of Canas in Cuzco June 12, 2010. The handwoven bridge made out of a local grass called "Qoya", spans 120 feet (36 metres) and is rebuilt every year as a communal effort. About 1,000 farmers from the Andean communities of Huinchiri, Quehue, Choccayhua, Ccolana and Chaupibanda take part in the weaving and construction of the bridge, keeping alive an ancient Inca tradition using techniques that have been passed down through generations. 

Photo: REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

The Vertical Farming Project

The Problem 

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim.

An estimated 10⁹ hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?
A Potential Solution: Farm Vertically

 

Don't miss these other very cool vertical farm designs: http://www.verticalfarm.com/designs.html

Originally found through unconsumption 

Today's Reality Check: Pogrom

"Mass murder in Kyrgyzstan: An Uzbek refugee fleeing ethnic violence with her family weeps as she waits to cross the border from the Kyrgyz city of Osh into Uzbekistan. More than 140,000 Uzbeks have fled a pogrom that began last week in southern Kyrgyzstan."

Photo: Faruk Akkan / AP

If Only It Were So

'Bout Says It All, Huh?

"Oil fills a footprint left in the sand on Dauphin Island, Ala. Crude from the gushing Deepwater Horizon well made its first appearance two days ago on the shores of Alabama."

Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Today's Reality Check

"First the volcano, then floods and mudslides: A woman cries as she uses a cell phone following the eruption of the Pacaya Volcano in Calderas, Guatemala. After the eruption blanketed Guatemala City with ash, the season's first tropical storm caused flooding and landslides that left 120 dead, at least 53 missing and thousands homeless."

Photo: Moises Castillo / AP

Today's Very Cool Picture

 

River floating season opens in East Peoria, Ill.

Photo: Ron Johnson / Peoria Journal Star

Today's Laugh

I'm an ex-Florida girl...

Today's Reality Check

 

Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Photo: Axel Schmidt / AFP/Getty Images

Today's (Dog Owner's) Laugh

After I teach Koko to read, I'm going to hang this on the lower part of the refrigerator.

Comfortable Much? or Letting Sleeping Dog Lie

When I moved into my house, I intended to get a sofa, but in the meantime put my futon in its place. Then I got Koko. The futon became hers. It started with her sleeping on it (see the sheet and little blanket? vain attempt to keep it somewhat clean.)
















Next it was her sitting on the top of it to stare out the window and wait for me when I leave the house. Now it's just devolved into her sleeping on the mooshed down part. I've given up trying to keep it "fixed" and suitable for human habitation. The only way to get it back into any sort of shape would be to lay it flat and pound on it. I've put the idea of buying a sofa on hold for now. I guess if this is the worst Koko does, I should be pretty grateful!

Today's Reality Check

 "A stray dog feeds puppies as she shares the space with street children who lie sleeping on the sidewalk in Katmandu, Nepal."

Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

Yes, Yes, I Believe It IS Spring

How do I know? I had on a pair of shorts for the first time this year. Exciting I know! And I didn't even have to wait until the middle of the day. Nope, I put those suckers on at 8 o'clock this morning. Even went over to the dog park in them too! Sorry there is no picture, but the camera couldn't handle the glare coming off of my fish-belly-white legs.

Mother Nature Makes Art Using "Found" Object

'AT&T's 3G network covers more than 230 million people' - minus those serviced by this AT&T cell tower, the victim of a tornado in Little Axe, Okla.

Photo: Steve Gooch / The Oklahoman