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2011. She is dwindling, friends.
Can you believe it has been one year since I revived (or hijacked, take your pick) Stephanie's What Are You Into idea? As I read back through what I have been into, I realized I really need to do better about sharing these consistently. It's a fantastic way to record the year.
image via Twiddler House
I'm so glad so many of you have found the Pinterest beginner's tutorial to be so helpful. (over 17,000 views and counting!) I have been joking that for as much troubleshooting and question answering I have done since I published that guide last May, I really should be on the Pinterest payroll.
Just to be clear: I'm not.
But I have really enjoyed helping other people discover Pinterest and learn how to use it effectively. Quite a few questions have been asked in the comments of the beginner's guide, so I thought I might follow-up by sharing some more Pinterest tips and tricks, as well as offering some answers to the most frequently asked questions.
First, some Pinterest FAQs:
Continue reading "Pinterest: More Tips and Tricks and FAQ" »
Come around to our back porch, step over nubby sticks of sidewalk chalk and scattered bubble wands, and open up the ancient screen door (I think you'll find it slams behind you in the most satisfying of ways) where you'll find a door with peeling paint and original hardware: the entrance to my office.
And by office, I mean one corner of the corner of the laundry room where I retreat to write.
Does it seem paradoxical to you that a person who openly admits to sometimes forgetting to wear make-up and shoes harbors a secret affinity for fashion?
Well, maybe not so much fashion fashion (as in haute couture). More like beautiful things, including beautiful clothes. I read a few style blogs (mostly Kendi) and I highly enjoy pinning pretty things on my threads board. I've seen every single episode of Project Runway, and I daydream about a closet full of dresses from Ruche.
This causes no small amount of tension for me, the long-time evangelist for The Story of Stuff (about how we all need to buy less stuff, including less clothing). Also, I can't watch Runway now without thinking that the hundreds of dollars the designers spend in one trip to Mood could feed so many homeless people living on the streets of NYC. The internal conflict, it's ever-present.
When I'm not fending off guilt attacks, what I enjoy most about style and clothing and fashion-y type stuff is the way an outfit is built. To me, it is art. For some, this is an inherent ability that is executed with great ease. My friend Laura, the Hollywood Housewife, is an example of someone gifted with this natural sense of style. She is just the most darling thing you've ever seen and she always has been. It's second nature to her. Our younger daughter AJ has this thing, too. You either have it or you don't.
I don't have it.
Looking cute takes great effort for me, so I tend to err on the side of simple. When Laura asked her readers to show off their favorite summer outfit, I knew what I would choose, and I knew it would be no show-stopper. But, it's me. It's simple and easy and I feel great in it:
Top: anthropologie (velvet) via ebay; jeans: BKE, hand-me-down from my darling friend Toni; shoes: Clark's; bangle cuff: garage sale find; locket: gift from Kyle from our favorite antique store in Fort Worth
(Gosh, y'all. I'm feeling very squirmy posting the full-body shot.)
So, these jeans are incredible. My friend Toni is this gorgeously tall, fantastically stylish lady who is so generous with her enviable wardrobe. She's pretty skinny-mini, too, and so when these jeans were too big for her, she passed them on to me. She also styled every single outfit I wore to BlogHer for me, because she's way generous with her time as well.
These are too long to wear uncuffed with sandals, etc., but that doesn't stop me. I just cuff them up and if it looks ridiculous, well, too bad. I love them. I've practically worn these jeans out this summer.
I've always worn shorts, but not even my boundless love for Laura is enough to get me to post a picture of myself in shorts on this blog.
The shoes are Clark's because my feet - ugh, my feet ... I have these awful fallen arches and have had them since childhood. We're talking orthopedic inserts in my shoes when I was a kid here, friends. Then I rebelled throughout my adolescence and young adulthood and wore ridiculously unsupportive flip flops from Old Navy and Target and now, I'm paying for it. I can't wear cheap flippers anymore. Every other year or so, I invest in a new pair of Clark's thongs and they get me through. But I still look longingly on all the darling sparkly fun sandals on the feet of my friends and sigh for the long-gone days of carefree foot fashion.
This top is actually a very black tank (it just photographed funny). After a brief bidding skirmish on ebay, it came home to me just before I left for BlogHer and I've worn it an embarrassing number of times since then. Now, I never used to wear tanks on their own; I always wore a cardigan or some other top over them. I'm not a big fan of my arms. But this summer, it has been sooooooooo hot that I just rolled my eyes at vanity and caved in to the comfort of having bare arms. Then I discovered that I kind of love my shoulders (would you think I was terrible if I said they look better in person than in these pictures?), and this top really plays well to them.
I love separates, and I've worn this top with skirts of the long and short variety as well as dress pants. It's this slub cotton that wears really well and it's just pretty much wonderful. My mother taught me to never, ever pay full price for retail, but I *might* have paid full Anthro price for this one. it's that good. But thank goodness for ebay.
I picked up that bronze-y gold cuff at a garage sale here in town and I wear it a lot a lot a lot.
Before Kyle and I had kids, we used to spend rare weekends with no plans haunting antiques stores. There was this one on Camp Bowie in Fort Worth that we really loved. Sunlight streamed in through dusty windows and there was always a cat trailing through our legs and the lady who owned it was very prim and proper but had twinkly eyes. We loved it. Kyle bought me that locket with the dainty flower detail years and years ago. It got packed away for nearly three years following our move away from Texas, but I finally found it when we did our whole Oasis project at the beginning of the year. I'm glad I found it. It's lovely.
Let's see. What else? Oh yes. I pin my hair up in a bun every. single. day.
So, these are some of my summer staples. Laura is hosting a link-up tomorrow for all of us to show off our summer favorites, so it's not too late for you to play along. You never know, you might just win this little pretty ...
Even if you don't link up with Laura, I would still love to hear about YOUR summer staples! What have you just lived in this summer?
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned (haven't I?) that I am doing some homeschool preschool with Aliza Joy this year. Last week, Kyle got a package in the mail that was full of packing peanuts, and I immediately thought of this fun idea that Laura from Chicken Counting shared with us last year:
The next time you get a package in the mail, you might be getting more than you bargained for. That is, if you were lucky enough to get cornstarch packing peanuts. You probably already knew that these things dissolve in water, can be composted, and are generally about a thousand times better for the planet than styrofoam. But did you know they were a free, versatile crafting material?
One day I was in our local craft store, and saw these special "crafting peanuts" in a small bag for $5. And I thought, hmm, those look just like packing peanuts. Turns out, they're exactly the same. Except the ones that come as packing material are, um, free. That's my kind of project!
The possibilities are myriad for these things, but one of my favorite things to do is to build structures. All you need is some kind of base to help your peanuts stand up during construction, and a damp sponge.
To build, you simply touch a peanut to a damp sponge, and stick it to another one. Repeat. I've had kids as young as three master this technique, and it is virtually mess-free.
For an igloo, turn a bowl upside down, and cut a short section of toilet-paper tube in half for the door. Build all around the bowl, and simply remove the bowl when you're done. Ta-da! A home for... a goat, apparently. Hey, we encourage imagination around here.
To make a more traditional house-shape, use a half-gallon milk carton as a base. Rummage through the recycling bin and see what you have. Can you imagine... a cereal box for a skyscraper? A folded piece of cardboard for a tent? A construction paper cone for a tipi?
When your structure is complete, there's no waiting for glue to dry or anything -- you can play with it right away. Or, you can paint it! Now remember, these little peanuts are water-soluble, so the paint you use should be chosen with care. Watercolors are a no-go. Acrylics work, but are tough to clean up. We found gel-based finger-paints gave the best balance of easy clean-up and not dissolving the house too much.
Linking up to Your Green Resource: Week Six!
Laura is the mother of three kids who range from toddler to teenager. She is passionate about healthful, sustainable food, and making things from scratch. In her fantasy life, she has a farm with chickens and goats, but for now raises her vegetables in the flower beds of her suburban garden. She chronicles her adventures at Chicken Counting.
Laura's other crafty ideas for the SortaCrunchy crowd include Meditation Stones and How to Make Your Own Lacing Cards.
photo by peasap
On Mondays at Laura's blog - In the Backyard - we are inviting you to join us in conversations related to the message of Spirit-Led Parenting. Last week, I told my story, and this week, Laura is telling hers. We would be honored to have you join us there.
Sometime back, I did an informal reader survey to ask what kinds of things y'all like to see here. One response that came up consistently was a request for more slice of life stuff. That's hard for me because it feels like narcissism dialed up to 11, yet when I read slice of life stuff from other people, I love it.
I love stories.
I love stories with pictures.
So I thought I would start telling you a little of the story of what my life looks like right now. I'm going to call this series this is where . . . and I'll just share some snapshots and sentences that speak to life at this moment in time.
And so, this is where I live. We moved to this small town on the western plains of Oklahoma three years ago this week. I grew up in Oklahoma, but this is the furthest west I've ever lived in the state. The town we live in now is surrounded by acre after never-ending acre of farming and agriculture. Cattle graze and tractors rumble and there's probably the occasional antelope roaming. Definitely there are deer.
As you drive into our town from the east, you're greeted by a looming grain elevator. This is standard issue for every Oklahoma small town in which I've ever lived:
The picture at the top of the post is from the side of an old hotel where our downtown meets the railroad tracks. Evidently at some point in time, our small town was quite the hub of railroad action. Life was different in Oklahoma small towns in the twentieth century, and we now live in the shadows and scars of the oil boom bust of the 1980s:
This is our downtown. I realize at first glance it may look like we live in a one-stoplight town, and when we first moved here from just outside of Austin, it felt a little one-stoplight, but there are in fact more than a dozen stoplights here, all told.
Driving through the neighborhoods of our Old Town, it's hard to miss the duality of a community that once partied so hard with Lady Oil. It is not unusual at all to see a house like this:
where from the shady front porch, one could look over the white picket fence to this neighbor's house down the street:
Roughly 65% of Oklahoma's public school students are eligible for free/reduced lunches. In our town, that percentage hovers in the 75-80% range. When conversations like this one at Simple Mom come up, it's hard for me to bite my tongue through the "us" and "them" tone of the discussion, because the "them" are our friends and neighbors and they have been our entire lives.
But. That's another post for another day, I suppose.
* * * * *
So, it's been three years since we moved to this little house on the prairie, and would you believe it's still hard for me to refer to here as our hometown? To say, this is where we are from?
I grew up in southern Oklahoma, and in a state that boasts an inviting array of landscapes, there is a remarkable difference between where we live now and where I am from.
Western Oklahoma has a very plains-and-prairie feel to it. There is a no-kidding prairie dog town less than twenty miles from our house, and a little further down that same highway, a large herd of buffalo graze the pasture.
But my childhood in Oklahoma was spent not on the plains, but in a region flooded with lakes and rivers and streams. Drive down I-35, through the Arbuckles (and we all laugh out the word Mountains, because these are no mountains; on their best day, they are big hills). Down, down to where Okies and Texans narrow their eyes at each other across the River Red.
Oh, the trees I have climbed. Oh, the shade I've been offered for hours of languid reading and quiet play. Oh, the stories I could tell of summers at the lake and the trouble we got into.
I try to take my girls as often as I can to the town that poured a foundation in my life. I take them so they can wade the cold waters and walk the rocky trails and climb the same exact tree their mother climbed as a little girl:
I used to be able to show them the church where I was baptized - buried with Him in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life - but that church no longer stands. Oh, the people are still there, but the building was sold and razed and became a parking lot for a casino.
If you have discovered that you can go home again, won't you please tell me how?
Much has changed since I was the little girl who chose to dress as an Indian on Pilgrims and Indians Day of Kindergarten (and don't we cringe? Did anyone even say Native American in Oklahoma in the early 80s?). Even then I was drawn to the shiny black hair and the gentle voice and the tragic story of the tribes who were forced to call this state home. Scratch the skin of anyone from here, and there's probably more than little native blood. Maybe it's the trace amounts of Cherokee in me that called me, even then, to seeing things from the point of view of Other.
* * * * *
I stand in the cool waters that once offered healing for all and I know this is where my feet have always been, and somehow I know, this is where they will always be.
I surrender to the comfort of the familiar.
I acknowledge the complicated relationship I'll always have with this state.
Pieces of my heart are scattered across the country, from the shores of Lake Erie to the plazas of Kansas City to the hill country of Texas to the playful coast of California. I don't know that I would choose Oklahoma; it has always chosen me.
And so it keeps wooing my resistance, making me giggle with towns named Oolagah and tempting me with Indian tacos and charming me with sunsets that blaze beautiful over steady slopes.
And this. This is where I live.
Winner is #174 - Kate of Sustainably Kate! CONGRATS!
As I mentioned before I traveled to San Diego for BlogHer, I was invited to attend the Haute Green party hosted by TheEcoChic, KellyWels, KimRosas, KatiesPickles, ClothDiaperGeek, and HauteMommyBlog. I walked over to the Dragon's Den after a day at Pathfinder and then working out registration issues, so I was thankful for some time to visit with women who share my passion for natural living.
It was such a treat to meet not only that list of incredible hostesses, but also Andrea of The Greenbacks Gal, Jill of Baby Rabies, and Jamie of Grumbles and Grunts, and I am sure there are others that I am leaving out! One of my Blogging Rock Star moments was finally meeting Annie of PhDinParenting - a woman I've read and admired for years. She was so gracious and kind and it was just awesome.
This was the party where I first met Morgan and Desiree, and in fact, I just saw this morning that if you click on Desiree's pictorial post of her BlogHer trip, you'll see Morgan and I at the Haute Green party in the second picture. (Morgan is the beautiful lady on the left. I am the one looking bewildered? confused? I don't know. It had been quite the day already by this point.)
So, the sponsors of Haute Green went all out in fixing up amazing goody bags for the Haute Green attendees. I'll be keeping some of this stash of goodness, but some of it is headed to the home of a SortaCrunchy reader. Maybe you? Read on!
First, here is what I'll be keeping:
canvas bag from Conserving Now
Skoy Cloth
cloth pad from Willow Pads
Rockin' Green detergent
Eco Nuts Soap
box of 3 cloth pads from Charlie Banana
NICE HAUL, right? I hope to share more with you about each of these as I have the chance to use them.
But now, on to what I brought back all the way from Sunny San Diego just for one of YOU! Behold, the diaper swag (minus a sweet little diaper from Go Green Diapers. I gave that one to Nicole, remember?):
So, back row:
Green Charlie Banana one-size diaper
Tealish green bitti tutto one-size-fits-most fitted diaper
Front row:
White BabyKicks one-size pocket diaper
Three sample containers CJ's BUTTer from Modern Cloth Diapers
Sample bag of Eco Sprout Soap
Cloth diaper bag tag (pictured in detail in first picture of this post) - Leslie's Boutique
Multi-color stripe Thirsties Size 2 Duo Wrap Snap
Black Change Three Things advocacy bracelet
Wheeeeeee! Fun, right?
So maybe you've been thinking of trying cloth diapers. Add a wet bag and you've got a great little starter kit here! Or maybe you are a cloth diaper hobbyist/addict and you are always looking to add to The Stash. (No shame! I'm only in recovery because everyone here has learned the potty!) Or maybe you have a sister/daughter/BFF/casual acquaintance who enjoys the cloth diapering and you want to gift her with a fun fluffy package - go on and enter!
The ONLY thing you have to do to enter is say something - ANYTHING - related to cloth diapering in the comments. That's it! Easy-peasy.
BONUS ENTRIES (MUST LEAVE ONE COMMENT PER BONUS ENTRY OR IT WON'T BE COUNTED I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THIS):
* Tweet about this giveaway. Make sure to mention @SortaCrunchy in your tweet.
* Link to this giveaway from your Facebook page OR just click the Facebook "like" button at the end of this post.
* Visit one of the contributors to the Haute Green swag bag and tell about a product there that piques your interest.
Giveaway will close Sunday, August 21st. Winner will be announced in this post.
