Message in a Bottle

Found -- message to me written by my four year-old daughter:  Di Your Hair.

Hmm...any recommendations for an eco-friendly hair dye?

I Heart Spoonflower

Even though I don't really consider myself crafty (although see here and here), I am fascinated by fabric as so many of you are...

Have you visited, therefore, Spoonflower?  I suggest you have a paper bag next to you as you peruse this site - you may hyperventilate at all the yummy choices.  You may design and print your own fabric, or, lucky us, we may benefit from the designs of others.  What will it be?  Cheater Quilt?  Retro Travel?  Or this pattern for a wrap skirt, all in one yard!  Betcha can't order just one!

Follow Spoonflower at http://twitter.com/spoonflower

Chit & Chat: Blog buttons & Other greenery

See that adorable little Email button over there on the right =====> ?  The one that looks like it was custom made for this wanna-greenie's blog?  Well, in fact, that button plus my adorable follow me on twitter bird (http://twitter.com/giftofgreen) were courtesy of Just Something I Made!  Yes, courtesy!  And you can be the recipient of this same courtesy, courtesy of...well, you get the idea.  Thanks too to designmom.com for pointing me in that direction.

So I am digging in to a nonfiction book I was sent to review (first of all, I love getting packages from publishers in New York City - I picture somewhere high above Madison Avenue ~or wherever~ someone delicately packaging up my book amid the hub bub of a publishing house.  The package winding its way through the building, emerging on the street, and being sent straight to me.  When I open that package with the fancy address, a little puff of NYC comes out of it, along with the book.), and moms of tweens, teens and pre-tweens, take note...  It looks like a good one available August 9th in stores.  Stay tuned.

Other than that, we are staying cool, eagerly awaiting our bi-weekly delivery from Washington's Green Grocer. Salads unite!

I leave you with a fascinating and hypnotizing video that I first learned about, again, through designmom.com.  Happy dreams!

Cape Cod Challenge

For almost ten years now we have lived in a modest Cape Cod style home from the 1950s.  We were fortunate that the house was "move in ready" and aside from a coat of paint or two, we could begin living in our home right away.  Now, ten years later, the house is beginning to show wear and tear.  Even though our budget is next to nothing, the time has come to start both preventative maintenance and some minor renovations to keep our house looking up to snuff.

Do any of you live in a 1950s style Cape Cod house?  If you do, you know the challenges.  The front door opens right onto the living room.  Our tiny kitchenette features a small table for four as there is no dining room. 

I'm trying to find some inspiration for designing small spaces from places like Apartment Therapy and  Loving Living Small.  I'll be posting pictures soon and perhaps you could weigh in on a new color scheme for our living/dining/watching-tv-room.

Do you have any ideas for small spaces or small places?

No More Beef

I am not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but as of May I have given up eating beef.  It was this photograph in the New York Times and the accompanying article on mobile slaughterhouses that finally did it for me.  Believe me, it was a purely personal decision and not one that I would press on to anyone else.  After all, I still eat chicken, pork and fish...and, as others would say, eggs and dairy. 

This is the first food I have ever given up and it has been very easy, I must say.  Is there a food that you have given up (anything from sugar to eggs) and what brought you to that point?

Clothesline Challege a la Carte

For those of you who have patiently followed me through my dry and prolific spells, you will know that I hosted a Clothesline Challenge two years in a row.  Thanks to some nifty assistance from Joanie and Dayna, we had some bloggy buttons and a couple of give-aways, and a lot, it seems, of participants!

But last year I was a bit lax, and not wanted to disappoint, I decided not to host the Clothesline Challenge this summer.  And wouldn't you know, we've had a string of weeks, yes, weeks! of sunny, humid weather in the upper 90s.  Perfect for the clothesline (well, maybe not the humid part).  So, I ask, have you been clotheslining it this summer?

On a side note, we spend the better part of the morning in an air-conditioned mall where we were treated to the site of Mia Hamm and her husband, no doubt keeping cool as they shopped with their daughters.  Thanks to Green Husband for spotting this very cool...in all senses of the word...family.

And from the Where Have I Been? department, Big Binder has moved, MOVED! I tell you.  She can now be found here and has a nice post up on greening your laundry (Well,  she mentions me in her most recent post but I swear I did not know this before I linked to her new blog.  We have some sort of psychic bond going back to our love of all things Carter Cash.)

Where Am I?

Ah!  Good question!  I ask myself that on nearly a daily basis.  The fact that I am off work for the summer contributes to my confusion.  Is it Monday or Thursday?  The end of July or the beginning of August.  It's nice to lose track of time.

So this fall I start my third year as an elementary school librarian.  Hard to believe.  I still pinch myself to see if I've really landed that dream job. 

In two more weeks I will be done, done, done with the seven classes I've been taking (didn't I make it seem so simple?) that I needed to get my full teaching license.  No.  More.  Classes.  (After one more large project - grrr).

And what will I do with all this "spare" time?  It's so easy to over commit when you are starting the next phase, but I intend to concentrate on Pip and Sprout.  They'll both be in elementary school together - ah, bliss.  I will concentrate on that aforementioned dream job.  There are so many FUN things to do and plan.  Speaking of...do you have a question about books for children?  Ask the Librarian (that's me).  Leave a comment and I will answer your question in a future post.

And finally, oh Joanie save me, I'm about to craft again!  (I did make it on Crafty Crow, you know).  I'm starting here... 

And what about Green Husband you ask?  He's about to embark on his on little landscape design business and try his hand at being Stay-At-Home-Dad.  Yes, with the economy there's been a ripple effect, so there are some changes afoot.  "You have to throw a stone to get the pool to ripple."

And finally, finally, oh joy!  I finished Summer's Lease by John Mortimer.  It took me five. FIVE summers to finish it, but I did it and I've now netflixed the movie.  I urge you to try it.  It won't take you five summers to finish.

Four-OH!

On Sunday my husband threw me the biggest surprise party of my life.  A cast of thousands was involved, all telling me lies, lies, lies for WEEKS!  When I pulled up to the house after the red herring birthday lunch, there were over 50 people who I love waiting for me (23 of these were children!  When did the adults become outnumbered?!).  Thank you for my party (and thank you ECM, my only blog-reader of the group for coming).  I love turning 40.