Black Goo from the Black Lagoon

With all the news surrounding the mysterious "black goo" that was found on swimmers at the local Kershaw Park, (which turned out to be from 80 year old buried oil drums that had missed detection), I can't help but think about fracking. Fracking companies don't even have to disclose the chemicals that they pump into the ground, (we have the Environmental LACK of Protection Agency to thank for that). My question is, if the chemicals are so harmless, why wouldn't the fracking companies want to disclose them and set everyone's mind to rest? If a few old oils drums can close a beach for the summer, what could a a few barrels worth of fracking chemicals do? I'd rather not find out.

The Finger Lakes area is renowned for its lakes and clean water. If fracking companies are allowed to come through and pollute the waters with their undisclosed chemicals, it will certainly take a toll on the tourism. Canandaigua Lake would be a much less desirable area with polluted water and it would be a huge blow to the local economy. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the oil barrels is that even more harm could be done with fracking chemicals. Perhaps the message is loud and clear: Don't frack with good water!

Wheat Weaving: Hunger Games Mockingjay Pin

Well, I'm betting I'm the first one to try this! A mockingjay pin made out of wheat. I just finished reading the first and second Hunger Games books, so I decided to weave the famous mockingjay pin out of wheat. (Hey, we all need to geek out once in a while, right). So I used a simple plait for the circle and used a straw marquetry technique for the bird, and then just joined the two with glue to make the pin. Straw marquetry refers to the practice of ironing wet straw flat and then gluing them onto a surface (in this case cardstock shaped like a mockingjay). It actually came out great on the first attempt, so I thought I'd post it for any fellow Hunger Games fans who wanted to try it. Hope you all have as much fun with it as I did!

New Uses For Lavender

I've always kinda thought of lavender as a miracle herb. The smell helps get rid of headaches (something I'm usually in dire need of), it's great as a de-stresser, and the oil can be used to treat almost anything an essential oil can treat.

So last week at the Cheshire Farm Market, I found out one more use for those lovely purple flowers. Purple Dog Lavender Farm sells lavender (obviously, as the name would suggest) and wool. And I learned that apparently those two items go quite well together, because the smell of lavender will deter moths from destroying the wool. So not only will it save your sweaters, it also smells a lot better than moths balls or even cedar. If you wash your wool items with lavender water, it saturates them with lavender scent and keeps the moths out. In my case, I think I've finally found something to do with the lavender bottles I make every year!

Dragonfly Ridge

During all the spare time that I seem to rarely have, I sometimes I like to just screw around with my guitar. I especially love playing blues music, but there aren't a whole lot of environmental songs in the genre, so I decided to write one.

I'll be the first to admit I can't sing, and blues is probably the worst thing I could even try to sing, but I couldn't con anybody else into singing it for me and the lyrics were an important part I didn't want to leave out. So I end up sounding kinda like Lou Reed in a less than flattering way, but hey, it is blues after all, and you don't really have to be able to sing to sing blues (thank goodness for that!).

A lot of the "dragonflies" in this video are actually damselflies filmed at Gramma's pond.

I've got Hemp!

Hemp fabric that is. I got a request to make another hemp fabric shopping bag, so as long as I was already ordering the hemp canvass for the bag, I figured I might as well order some clothing-grade hemp fabric as well (smaller weave). Hemp is one of the strongest, most environmentally friendly fabrics on the planet, and the company I get it from is all Fair Trade. I've been planning for some time to start making a line of hemp clothing, and earlier this year I actually got around to drawing up the designs. So today my 100% hemp fabric arrived. It has a look and texture very similar to that of linen, and I can't wait to start sewing with it. I'm busy making costumes for the upcoming season now, so I probably won't get a chance to work with the hemp material until after Halloween, but it's nice to know that it's here. Hoping to start listing hemp fabric clothes for sale sometime in the late November/early December time frame. It's my downtime, after the markets and Halloween end, so I'll need a new venture!

How to Make a Corn Husk Doll

One of my favorite parts about summer is of course sweet corn (who doesn't love that?) and the leftover husks (ok, a little less commonly sought after than the sweet corn, but still loads of fun). Most of our leftover husks go to the cows, as husks are like a cow's version of desert, but I always save a out a few to make cornhusk dolls. They're cute little folkart things that are fun to make, and the best part is, if anything gets messed up during the creation, there are plenty more husks where those came from.

Cornhusk dolls have their origins in Native American culture. The dolls were made as toys for children as well for more serious ceremonies. In later years, the pioneers also borrowed the tradition from the Native Americans and made dolls for their children out of cornhusks.

Traditionally cornhusk dolls have no faces. This is due to an old legend about a cornhusk doll who had such a beautiful face that she grew vain. She ignored her duties and responsibilities, choosing only to stare at her own reflection. The Great Spirit saw this and punished her by removing her face. This is why cornhusk dolls are made without faces, but you can always paint one on if you desire.

Once you get good at the basic cornhusk doll, you can go all out using scraps of cloth for clothing, or giving them brooms to turn them into Halloween witches.

Market Kitty Update

Well Meatball the rescue kitty from the market has a clean bill of health. We took him (it is officially a he) to the vet and had him tested for leukemia and distemper and he came back clean. A few more weeks and we'll get him his shots. He's currently very happy in his new surroundings, bouncing off the walls, tormenting the other cats and the dog, and demanding that everyone pet him 27/7. Little guy with a lot of energy. My brother also began referring to him as Spock , and the name seems to be sticking. So while his "legal" name is Meatball, I think the nickname Spock is taking over (considering how big the kitty's eats are, who can argue that it's a "highly logical" name).



Meatball/Spock playing with a ball.



How to Make No-sew Curtains

Normally I'm a patient person, but when it comes to redecorating my room, I turn into a rather lazy seamstress. When it's my own room, I pretty much want it "done yesterday" so I end up taking a lot of shortcuts. Some of those shortcuts crash and burn, but others end up fine. This set of curtains is one of the latter. I needed some curtains for my window, and lately I've really felt the need to add some orange to my room. So I got myself a piece of material that wouldn't fray, a little glue and a pair of scissors and set about making a set of curtains that only took a few minutes. Since there's no sewing, these curtains are easy enough that anyone can make them. (Sorry, the sound isn't great in this. I was shooting this video at midnight so I couldn't talk very loudly, as everyone was sleeping.)