moonday retrograde

I wanted to stitch on black cotton velveteen so after looking for about 15 minutes, going up and down the stairs, I found it. Then I couldn't find an embroidery needle. A single embroidery needle. I have about a dozen but not one of the three pincushions has one in it. So this is what I have to show for my little cotton velveteen excursion. A backstitch seems appropriate today!

On this moonday, we have a waxing moon moving into the fiery sign of Leo later today. The dryness of Leo requires us to keep up on hydration, our own and for those little seedlings we've been tending for the garden. Add to that houseplants, newly-potted pansies, trees & shrubs planted within the last year, the compost pile, our animals -- and we've got quite a watering list for the next few days.

Leo affects the heart and circulation, the back and the diaphragm. A Leo moon-time can be heart-warming or  heart-breaking. We can enjoy and direct Leo's fiery power, or we can over-do and over-stress giving way to emotional pain, high-blood pressure and a strained back. Leo gives us extroverted energy to shine however we may, it's up to us.

All the miscommunications and things I've forgotten or lost lately have been both comical and slightly annoying. But it's OK because I know that Mercury is retrograde (3/30/11 to 4/23/11) influencing such matters as communication, travel and ideas. Things like computer glitches, disconnects, misunderstandings, car problems, lost luggage, and even issues with contracts and filling out forms seem to occur now.  A Mercury Retrograde sometimes causes us to have to redo things, we may get the dates mixed up, the wrong data, etc. The good part is that it makes sense now to take time to reflect, review the past, reconsider, find things, listen better, and verify.

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and has the fastest orbit. Its effect on us is high energy, it's going, going, going. So when it retrogrades for a three-week period, we get a sense of slowing down, stopping, maybe even going backwards. It's actually sort of a relief.

Of course, Mercury isn't literally going backwards now, it only appears that way. Like when a car next to you goes forward and makes you feel like you're rolling backward. In this case, as the faster planet passes a slower one, each sees the other one as moving backwards during that time.

Mercury Retrogrades ahead: 8/2/11 to 8/26/11 and 11/23/11 to 12/13/11!

mud cloth

I bought this at a fiber frenzy sale. It seems to be part of a long tunic or gown and I immediately took out some seams to make smaller pieces to work with. But then I stopped deconstructing. It felt so wrong. Because whatever it was needs to be part of what it will be.

The more I look at it, the more fascinated I am. I wonder about the Earth in my garden, could it do something? It stains my clothes, so maybe so.

Interesting that there are very few good-quality videos on how African mud cloth is created. I wonder why that is.

                                 

favorite big-batch soup

a favorite soup with cream cheese & chives

This is a favorite soup. It takes a half-hour to make, an hour to simmer, and that's it, dinner's covered for the next few days. Done. Surprisingly, it needs very little seasoning and mixings can be added at serving time. Mixings could be pesto, sour cream, cheese, cream cheese, salsa, herbs, and sometimes when there's not much left, I stretch it by adding a fried egg topped with cheese, a la ratatouille. Every meal can be different. It's quite a lot of soup and, of course, it's better the next day. 

It's based on a recipe by Nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman but at this point, I feel like it's morphed into my own. This is what the frozen tomato sauce from our homegrown tomatoes goes into. This is what weeds and greens and vegetables from the garden go into. And this is what all the odd bits & pieces in the fridge go into.

I've only used grass-fed ground beef but I don't see why a person couldn't substitute another meat or a soy product.

A Favorite Soup

2 lbs. grass-fed ground beef or other protein
2 16 oz. cans or the equivalent of tomato something: sauce, puree, chopped, whole
3-4 cups water, depending on how much liquid you want
1 onion, chopped
1-2 green and/or red peppers, chopped
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2-4 cups any chopped vegetables--green beans, squash, mushrooms, cabbage, etc.
1 vegetable bouillon cube, salt-free (optional)
2 cups greens--spinach, nettles, lamb's quarters, Swiss chard, etc.

Brown the protein, slowing adding the onions, peppers, celery and garlic. Then add all the remaining ingredients except for the greens. Cover and cook over low-medium for an hour, stirring often, and adjusting liquid. Add the greens 5-10 minutes before serving time. We salt & pepper at the table.

Also posted at Food Renegade.

greencraft: inspiration & more from a tea bag

I love coffee and I love tea -- lattes or americanos and loose or bagged. I think a hot mug of something helps me to not graze all day long.  Usually I tear the staple and/or string off a used tea bag and toss it in the compost. But I saw a dress made out of tea bags in a magazine a few weeks ago so I've been saving and drying out my tea bags ever since I saw that dress. Not that I'm going to make a dress. Here's a run-down.

I prefer opening a dried-out tea bag rather than a wet one. If stapled, the edges of the little staple need to be bent up so the staple will come out without tearing the paper. All tea companies that use a half-knot to attach the string instead of a staple deserve a big hand.

 

I didn't realize a tea bag was folded so many times. Tea bags are made with a blend of wood and vegetable fibers-- the vegetable fiber is bleached pulp of abaca hemp, a small plantation tree grown for the fiber, mostly in the Philippines and Colombia (that's straight from Wikipedia).

This is what happens with a skylight overhead -- look how the color changes from here . . .  

. . . to here -- just seconds after the previous photo -- a cloud must've floated by. Anyway, I'll still be composting the spent tea plus I'll have gained a little pile of tea-stained 3" x 5" or so papers. I don't know what to do with them, but I do know how a tea bag is folded now.

A Yogi Tea inspiration.

dye heart

dye heart, inspired by the whispering hearts class, has been the center of my sewing universe for the last 24 hours. Red geranium & oak leaf-dyed silk, rosehip-dyed silk organza, Rumi cloth, and cotton on a blue background cloth.

Still asking and listening though . . . if I go with this blue background cloth  from Gerdiary, then I'll have to order more because this is one of my absolute favorite pieces . . . I'm also wondering if this is to be a stand-alone cloth or part of a ménage à trois?

The heart was a natural event thanks to some red geranium flower petals laying themselves perfectly here. And I love that the Rumi cloth and the red geranium cloth found their way back to each other.

go-slowly moonday

new beginnings in the moon basket . . .

vase~fresh flowers in the house again very soon

cloth strips~weaving and sewing

journal~some spring writing exercises

sketchpad~sketching before sewing

vintage frame~to be filled and hung

seed amulet~journey deeper with sunflower, my plant ally

heart shape~see what happens with cloth and thread

Today is a waxing crescent moonday in the sign of Taurus. Yesterday was the first new moon of Spring growing into the first full moon of Spring. Some holy days are arranged around lunar events -- even Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after Spring Equinox.

This Spring waxing moonday seems to hold special potential. A new/waxing moon is always a time for beginnings, but add Spring to the mix and we have ourselves a little power surge. Spring is the epitome of hope; I sometimes think that this time could be named Hope or Hoping instead of Spring. We hope for so many things now. In the garden we hope that our seeds germinate and grow, we hope for rain and no late freezes, that the bees are healthy this year, for a good harvest, and that we can keep up with it all.

The Earth sign of Taurus ruling a waxing moon is one of the best times ever to sow seeds. The seeds want to reconnect with Mother Earth now, they seem to fly out out of our hands into Her. Even if the Earth is in plastic 4-packs, it doesn't matter. If you work outside, the day quality of Taurus is cool, so dress a bit warmer than you would think.

On another level, Taurus makes us want to slow our pace, to ground and stabilize, and to think. We can draw upon all three energies in play now -- waxing moon, Taurus and Spring -- to form personal desires and fuel them with hope the same way we do for the garden.

Taurus rules the lower face and neck areas including the ears, the teeth, throat, vocal chords, and the thyroid gland. That means these parts are vulnerable and also that they may be more successfully treated at this time. When you think about the discomfort of problems in any of these parts -- sore throat, losing your voice, earaches, TMJ -- it makes sense to go with the flow of Taurus, which is . . . smile, breathe and go slowly. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

hey world

Does anyone know whose hand this is?

Seriously, this funky hand impression surfaced when I was rummaging through drawers and shelves for the pledge. It is unlabeled. I know it's not my husband's because his mother responsibly labeled his. So it's either mine or one of the kids'. That means it could belong to any one of six people. I can't even make a guess with those numbers. I guess I'll hang it somewhere and we'll just call it the orange hand.

This video has been around for some time, there are several versions, even one made with real and controversial images from Haiti. I like the hand imagery and may do something like it with the hand up there. With all that's going on in the world, sometimes it's nice to watch a little video and listen to a song that says a lot. A lot. And I'm not giving up either.