In Appreciation of Etsy Sellers

I could look at Etsy sites and DaWanda sites all day and night. These two sites in particular offer a wide range of crafters and so much of what is sold is incredible. Why we ever go to the mall is beyond me. The customer service alone makes a person not want to shop anywhere else!

Some of my favorites lately are:

DebDutch.Etsy.com ~ "...for hand painted shoes & unique gifts..."
Deb Dutch Designs makes these adorable hand
painted canvas shoes for kids.
Some with a real sense of humor.

Check out her Guppy shoes...

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5606014



khphillips.etsy.com ~ Ahhh - then there's Keith over at Mudstuffing. I bought a French Butter Dish from him that reminds me so much of Provence and the pottery I purchased over there. He is so personable and will work with you to do just what you want. "He sews he throws" is the mantra of this shop. I wanted this teapot but have to purchase carefully or I'll have more than I have room for. I'm waiting for a dutch oven baking pot.

Yummy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5109726

viogeminidesigns.etsy.com ~ Now I have to admit if I was 20 years younger I would buy and wear one of these corsets handmade in England by a talented artist by the name of Viorica. She learned the craft from her Mum and has taken the art of the corset to new heights. They are really like a work of art. Some are rather Goth but this one shown is just gorgeous. Just read what goes into making one of these!!

"The corset is interlined with cotton fabric and lined with strong black cotton drill for durability and comfort.The corset comprises 10 shapely panels with the a metal busk front closure. 10 spiral steel bones are stitched into the seams and 4 metal bars on either side of the eyelets to ensure that you can tighten the corset as much as you like wihout the corset changing shape!"

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5843797

OscarANDTheodore.etsy.com ~ "Meet Oscar: A rough and tumble sort of chap who's fearless...and Theodore: A neat reserved fellow who loves to read and who sits quietly in church" This shop features handmade clothing for children that are so creative. She uses wonderful fabric combinations that are very Eastern Shore. The shorts I highlight here are called 'Nantucket Vacation' and make you feel you are at the beach just by looking at them! She tells a story with each item and brings Oscar and Theodore to life.....

Where are the graham crackers and marshmallows?

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5691728


SarahJaneStudio.etsy.com ~ is a mom and artist that captures perfectly that child-like love of things. Her drawings make you 'feel the love', so to speak. This shop is my favorite for graphics. Her pictures of the Elephant and friend rabbit tug at my heart! She sells both prints and cards. Please check this shop out for that happy feeling we all need so much.

'I love you friend'

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5317715

As you can see, there is a ton of talent out there. Visit these shops as a start and shop until your fingers hurt!!!!

As always,

Hannah
Dreaming in Colors

Wind power and other musings

Let the wind blow....

The other day it was really windy here and it made me think - epiphany actually. Why not have a wind farm? They seem to be cropping up everywhere - Texas and Kansas of all places. The farmers in Kasas are making more on land lease deals for the turbines than they would if they grew crops. The down side to that is the food shortage. Lord will we ever win this battle?

You try to come up with new energy resources and everyone gets excited about bio fuel and wind energy and then discover to costs too much to produce the corn into fuel and there's a shortage for feeding the world and now wind energy is taking acreage out of food production. More people are eating more grains and legums (vegan) and less meat - so it's a total Catch 22.

Anyway, I have 60 acres on a hill in Eastern Washington that is basically made of land fill. Farmers around me tell me I can't grow anything in the crap soil there is so I was thinking... The wind blows constantly, more up top of the hill than at the bottom, which would be great. A guy who bought the plat of land at the far end of my hill built the UGLIEST house I have ever seen ( yellow modular with a theme of SW stucco that didn't work out so well) and he put it smack dab on top of the hill. Hope it blows away someday but in the meantime I figure we could plant a bunch of the turbines on top and down about half way in the center of my hill which will leave me land to raise Romney sheet with a llama and room for my cottage. Brilliant. Income for my old age and energy production. All I have to do is talk to the sheep and garden.

If any of you Greenies know anything about wind farms please let me know! I need help to get this off the ground. I know nadda. I have found a few resouces (see below) but could use your advice, please.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/large_wind.asp

http://www.mge.com/environment/wind/

http://www.awea.org/smallwind/smsyslst.html

Hey frog! It really ISN'T easy being GREEN

The weather has finally turned warm enough for my laundry ritual of hanging the clothes outside again and the familiar slowing down and enjoying it has returned. This weekend it was in the 90's with a small breeze - just enough breeze to dry things in about 10 min. Unfortunately, I had errands to run that afternoon which cut into the cycle of wash and dry and I did end up doing the final load in the dryer after sundown. I always feel a sense of failure when I don't do everything possible to cut back on our electricity. While I'm drying clothes outside I am also running the A/C inside. I keep the thermostat at 80 day and night but 80 on a hot day just doesn't feel that cool. Last night I was raking and weeding on the West side of the house and just about died from the heat pouring off the side of the house. When we bought the house we were very aware of the sun pattern and faced the house North and South so the sun would go over the sides with the least windows. We also upgraded our insulation to the highest rating available in the attic, but now I wonder about the walls. I only feel heat on the inside of the windows not the walls. I have trees on the East side where the big windows are and they block most of the morning sun and heat in summer, but there really isn't room on the West side to plant trees. I put insulated panels on the windows, and keep the blinds closed, all of which do help, but if in May the side of the house almost caused heatstroke, what about August and Sept. ~ our hottest months?

Before we built the house, I toured the Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix several times to see the flora and fauna (if you can call it that in the desert) to see what grew with no water and no brown dirt (our dirt is light beige) and they had an experimental house you could see for help in saving the environment. I devoured everything I could learn (1994! people!!) because I knew I now lived in a desert and the rules had changed. Unlike midwesterners who show up here and put lawn in EVERYWHERE and think they're in Milwaukee, No lawn, No peonies, No lilacs, no this, no that. Cactus and plants that strive to kill you every time you garden are the norm. Plants with spikes 2" long and just sit in wait. Oh, and the weeds know just how to bury themselves INSIDE the grouping of cacti (cacti stick together a lot) so you can't possibly get to the damn weeds without piercing yourself a dozen times. Every time I do yard work I show up the next day with scratches and scars from the day before. The cacti always win. Even the trees that look so beautiful have thorny prongs 2" long on them. That friendly mesquite over there? Laying in wait.... The yellow blooming Acacia? Wants nothing more than to scar you for life. As much as I have a personal hatred for the damn Acacia in my front yard, I refuse to kill a tree in the desert. It takes patience and prayer to grow anything so I am the last one to kill something I finally go to grow in the first place!!

I have changed out all my light bulbs to the low energy kind, use as little water as possible, and hope to get an instant hot water attachment for the kitchen faucet. I hate seeing water pouring down the drain waiting for hot water and do my best to do multiple tasks - use the cool water while waiting for the hot. Makes my conscience feel better if nothing else. I do shower every day but in less than 5 min. unless I wash my hair (once a week) which adds 3 min. I smell good and use as little water as possible.

At the end of the day I just look over how I've lived my day and most of the time I feel I've done my best. I combine trips to save gas, and with hot weather arriving, my driving will be cut back and I will be staying home and building my stock on Etsy. My garden looks the best this year as it ever has, and with shade now available from noon on, watering will be even less this year than last. Slowly but surly I am getting there. It takes time to become green and it ain't easy Kermit!!

You tried to tell us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hannah

Dreaming in Colors

Tiptoe through the tulips with me.....

I just returned from a wonderful trip home to spend time with the kids and get a dose of Green. The weather showed off with temps in the mid 80's and Seattle did it's best to make me long to be back where my heart belongs. It was an eventful weekend with the opening of the tulip feastival in Mt. Vernon and the Green Fest in Seattle. I was in heaven.

We hit Greenlake park on the way from the airport to the house and EQ showed me how much she can do now. I was terrified as she climbed the steps of the slide and came down like a big girl. She showed me how to dig in the sand and loved having her legs buried. We both had such a good time. She was so happy to see me and remembered I was one of the good guys.

On Saturday we wanted to head North for shopping and tulips.We started with the outlet mall in Tulalip which turned out to be shopping vervana. I have never seen an outlet with so much~ We all shopped to exhaustion. Then we headed further North to the tulip fields where all we could see was yellow from daffodiles everywhere. It was a sea of yellow. The weather had been too cold for the tulips, which decided to stay closed until this week. I love daffodiles though and enjoyed seeing all the fields at the base of mountains. The sights are unbelievable. We took EQ there last year when she was only 6 months old, and this year she was walking and running! Her mother decked her out in an adorable Laura Ashley dress and we were ready for the pictures to start. EQ wasn't having it. The fields, unfortunately for her, are made of dirt, and she and dirt aren't friends. She was quite unhappy having to stand and look sweet when all around her were strangers and dirt. It was a riot. Then AR of course had to sleep through the whole event.

The next day we went to the Green Festival in Seattle. It was terrific and we learned and saw so much! I try to do as much as possible to leave a small carbon footprint, but living in the SW it's hard to know if I'm on the right track. Sundance and their green programing leaves me feeling like such a failure sometimes, so seeing I was doing a pretty good job made me so proud. I have changed all my lightbulbs, inside and out to low energy, I have a front loading washer and hang my clothes out to dry, and use as little water as possible in my garden. If it would ever rain I could cut back even further on the watering. My next house will be 90-95% green inside and out. We discovered several great green clothingdesigners,(www.textureclothing.com and www.smallaxeclothing.com) from the NW, and a new social website dedicated to green folks called Greeniacs and there was vegan food and great music. EQ took advantage of the music and danced and flirted with the bass player. (Who flirted back ). We had a great time and learned a lot.

It was nice to be with family and play with kids again. When I'm here in the SW I work too much and laugh too little. Being around the little ones and my kids makes for a lot of laughter, love and snuggles.

In an effort to give back and open my horizons I have become a volunteer Wise Elder with the Elder Wisdom group and have offered advice to several people. I've lived a pretty colorful life and love sharing what I've learned with younger peeople. I certainly don't feel elderly, but have learned a few things along the road to where I am now and people seem to appreciate what I have to say. I also got my first 'bulk' order on Etsy for my Obama shirts. Yippee. I love him. I want his vision for the United States to come to fruition. We need a major change and for me he answers all my hopes and dreams for what we can be as a nation.

Well, that's it for now. As always....

Dreaming in Colors

Hannah

Dancing shoes

When a little girl gets her first pair of light up shoes and a pink tu-tu, life is just about a good as it can get. The absolute thrill expressed is contagious to everyone around her and they too are filled with this joy they can't explain. She puts on the tutu and is transported into a beautiful fairy, dancing in pink with a crown and twinkle slippers.

I know that feeling is better than anything I can accomplish with yoga or exercise or living right... Pure joy. The best feeling and one we search for whenever we're awake. We really need to go back to the magic of childhood. Imagination is replaced with dreams of sleep instead of seeing magic when we're awake. We get transported into whatever we're reading, at times, but spend too much time watching TV where there is no room for imagination. Quiet encourages imagination and I find I'm spending more and more time in silent surroundings and my creative imagination has the opportunity to flourish. Even if I'm dead tired from a day at the office, the stillness makes me relax and my mind has the freedom to excerise itself. What a revelation.

By watching EQ doing her pretend play I realize the TV is off and the noises of life within the house don't infringe on her creating a world of real friends and sharing tea. We look in from the outside and see nothing but cups in a circle, but she is in full conversation with her guests and enjoying a tea party with all of her special people. The conversation is lively and sincere. Her baby brother is a real live baby but serves as a new doll for her. Whatever she sees him as, is what he is. He looked particularly fetching in the stickers she placed all over his head, face and clothes. She was quite amused.

I am thankful she is getting the opportunity to entertain herself with imagination. It isn't encouraged enough in children today and those of us of a certain age, remember all the pretend we did as kids - cowboys, bank robbers, cops, teachers, doctors and nurses. I remember being convinced that I was an auburn mare trotting all over my pasture when I played recess with my grade school friends. I was so envious of the palomino. She really thought she was something. The trees in the yard were houses and forts and the tricycle made a great truck, car or horse depending on where I was at the time.

We didn't have a television set until I was in junior high so books, the radio, playing outside with the neighbor kids and my imagination kept me busy from breakfast to bedtime. I remember being so busy all day that it was hard to stop long enough to eat lunch. When the weather was warm enough it was always a picnic in the backyard and the milk in a metal cup was colder and tasted so good. During summer, I spent time every day in the garden with grandma. The rest of the year I helped wash clothes, learned to iron (hankies and dish towels) and learned how to cook being with her. She tried to teach me to sew but I'm still getting the hang of that now. We didn't miss TV - we had ourselves for entertainment and it was wonderful.

My life is so much happier now that I have turned off the TV at night and head out to the garden instead, while it's still light out. At dusk I move in to my craft room and sew or scrapbook until late in the evening. If there is something important coming on TV that night - I record it and watch it when there is nothing else to do. Not watching the news three times a day has made an immense difference too. My dreams are better and I rarely have nightmares. I'm not afraid to leave my house and the world isn't a big bad place anymore. I read good news and scan the Seattle Times when I eat lunch but that's about all the news I need.

Get outside and get your vitamin D and smell the fresh air - Enjoy your life!!

Thanks for checking in.
Hannah
Always - Dreaming in Colors