Today's Laugh

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

This is the first windmill William Kamkwamba built when he was 14.

This is an AMAZING, inspiring story of a Malawian boy, William Kamkwamba, whose parents couldn't afford to send him to school, but whose thirst for knowledge is so insatiable that he taught himself English, how to read and through that, how to build a windmill so his family could have electricity. His story has moved me to tears. I have been to Malawi. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, but people like William know how important education is to alleviating some of that poverty.

Here is the Boing Boing story: http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/08/the-boy-who-harnesse-1.html

Watch this short documentary on his story: http://missingpiecesvideo.com/kamkwamba/movingwindmillsFINALsubtitle.mov

Today's Reality: The Revolution IS Being Televised

 

All photos nicked from The Huffington Post

Caught Necklace

Back in my Etsy shop in time for Valentine's Day!
Sterling silver, webbed heart Caught Necklace.

Extraneous Adorable Dog Picture

Koko at her perkiest! I must have had food. I love how her collar looks like it matches the wall. This was taken with my new cell phone. It's a pretty good picture and it's got this great pixilation and technicolor.

Yes, but no ham.

These were my breakfast eggs. The one on the left was much greener than it seems here.

I was invited out to lunch at my friend, and fellow Portland Saturday Market vendor, Jayne's house. Well, actually I was returning the tile saw she and husband Mario blessedly loaned to me for my work in the bathroom. The saw saved hours of time and a whole lot of my sanity. So I was bringing the wonderful tool back. Jayne's place is out on a piece of family land and they have a very large chicken coop and 13 lovely Spice Girls (all the chickens are named after a spice). When I was leaving after our delicious lunch, I was presented with a half dozen fresh eggs. I didn't look at them until this morning when I went to make my breakfast. They are absolutely lovely eggs. Huge and lovely. I had to take pictures, fascinated by something so everyday striking me as so beautiful. One of the eggs I had this morning was a stunning moss green. Alas, being vegetarian, I had no ham with my green egg.

Wonderful Press! (I think...)

I recently made a Simple Spinner Ring for a nice customer in The Netherlands. She was very happy with it and took to her blog to exalt her new ring. At least that's what I think it says. My Dutch is rusty, so she assured me it's all good. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when someone is so excited by their new jewelry that they want to tell everyone about it. Thanks Nicole!

Curious as to what some of the comments to the post were, I took to my computer's translation function. I have only now stopped laughing long enough to make this post. I can't read this translation without wetting myself:

"Groovy! I have last at the world shop stand hesitate. But that is frequently large half-measures, I zoek more as an inch ring correctly simply ringvinger-ring.!"

I think this explains a lot of what goes wrong with foreign policy.

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.

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