Great Depression Mindset from Grandma
“Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives.” ― Chuck Palahniuk My Grandmother’s birthday recently passed, and if she were alive today, she would have made it past a hundred years old—and since many other women of my family lived to be past a hundred,…
Daily Art Musings: Struggling to Write a Cookbook
“Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.” ― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals I’ve wanted to write a cookbook for over ten years now. I technically did write one for a family reunion some years ago. The goal was to…
How to Knit: The Feather Lace Stitch
“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all” ― Emily Dickinson The feather lace stitch is a lacy stitch that appears like falling feathers in a triangular rhythm. It is simpler than it appears, requiring only yarn overs and left and right…
Flowers and Peace: A Recipe for Sunshine Happy Hippie Granola
“There is freedom waiting for you in the breezes of the sky and you ask – ‘What if I fall?’ Oh but my darling ‘What if you fly?’ ” ―Erin Hanson Five everyday things that give me happiness are: waking up to a healthy family, settling down with a good book, watching my garden thrive, the…
The Uncle I Wish I Grew Up With
“An uncle is a bond of faith that even time can’t sever, a gift to last all of our lives. An uncle is forever.” — Betsy Farrell While I was in high school, I was part of an art program that involved quite a bit of design, pencil drawing, and visits to the MoMA―which I…
A Homestead Classic: A Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies
“I bit into the chocolate chip. Slowed myself down. By then, almost a week in, I could sort through the assault of layers a little more quickly. The chocolate chips were from a factory, so they had that same slight metallic, absent taste to them, and the butter had been pulled from cows in pens,…
The Perks of Being a Dandelion
“This will ruffle some feathers. Not every form of exercise needs to be “optimal” to be worth doing. There. I said it.” ― Anonymous I hope you don’t mind a bit of stream of consciousness… The outdoors are working their gravitational pull on me. My work has been hectic, full of grading essays and crises intervention,…
Have You Ever Heard of the Book “Memento Mori”?
“Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.” ― Emily Dickinson One day while traversing the non-fiction shelves of my local library, I came across a little black book with Joris von Son’s painting Allegory on Human Life adorning the front…
Our Own Spirit in a World Stranger than Fiction
“There are hundreds, if not thousands of flowers in the world. Comparing a peony to a bellflower is pointless. Who has the right to judge which is more beautiful?” ― Natsu Hyuuga As an avid reader, asking me to choose who I would like to be if I could be a character from a book or…
What if I Told You that Plants are a Different Beast?
“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” ― H. Jackson Brown Jr. One of the proudest moments in my life was the day my precious little Looking Glass Begonia survived an entire year. I purchased it with a friend at a local brewery where a gardening festival was also…
Happy Ostara: Less Tech; More Human
“The happiest people do not have the best of everything; they make the best of everything they have.” ― Anonymous I’m a bit late for this; Ostara and the Spring Equinox was yesterday, but today’s weather is a better fit for it. I’m digesting a bit with the new Noferatu flavored tea I purchased while…
Tea of Immortality: A Recipe for Jun Kombucha
“In a world full of sodas, be a kombucha.” ― Anonymous Also known as Jun Tea, Jun is a variety of kombucha specifically brewed by fermenting green tea with honey, bacteria, and yeast. It isn’t too different from vinegar, which develops from fermented juice with a bacterial culture. However, unlike vinegar, it’s a whole lot tastier.…
Let the Good Times Roll: A Recipe for Raspberry Cream Cheese King Cake
“Laissez les bons temps rouler (Let the good times roll).” ― Anonymous Raspberry Cream Cheese King Cake is a marvelous traditional pastry associated with the celebration of Mardi Gras, particularly in the Gulf Coast region of the United States, most notably in Louisiana. It is a sweet and colorful cake that is typically enjoyed during the…
3 Historical Knits Used to Protest Fascism
“We think too much and feel too little.” ― Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator Why Arts and Crafts ARE Activism Oftentimes many see “craftivism” ―a form of civil disobedience and political protest that uses traditional domestic crafts to fuel societal change―as a Paper Tiger that produces few if any results, or as a form of…
Daily Art Musings: Only Crafting for Fun In 2026
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ― Maya Angelou My Life is Being Rewritten This year, I’ve been thinking a lot about my high school and college self. I used to be enraptured by all of the Great American (and International) Novels we read in our literature classes… The…
How to Knit: The Stockinette Stitch
“I do know that there isn’t ever going to be a time when there aren’t any knitters…” ― Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Perhaps the most well known knitting stitch of all is the classic Stockinette Stitch. Most will recognize its iconic V-shaped pattern, smooth finish, and curling edges. It is the quintessential stitch for nearly all stitch…
Daily Art Musings: Two Extra Hours
“Where your worth is underestimated, your time will be wasted.” ― Gift Gugu Mona The greatest news I’ve received in a long time is being told that I would receive the gift of time. That seems insignificant when I could have received greater news that could move mountains or be someone’s difference between life or death.…
Daily Art Musings: Your Aesthetic vs. Prepackaged Aesthetics
“To find out who you are is like putting yourself on a psychiatric couch, but you have nobody to help you. Really it isn’t easy. I was talking with my nephew this morning and he gave me one of the best quotes I’ve heard in years, ‘Personal style is curiosity about oneself.’” ― Iris Apfel I…
Happy Imbolc and Candlemas: A Promise of New Life
“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein A Dream of Spring Imbolc marks the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. The word…
I Painted My Own Regal Pet Portraits
“Everyone is taught that angels have wings, but the lucky ones of us find they have four paws.” ― Anonymous Harmless Fun and Practice Since 2011, I had only painted seven or so pictures, often feeling inadequate and constantly comparing myself to my late uncle, who was fabulously talented. Add on a slew of internet…
I Made My Christmas and Yuletide Gifts This Year
“Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color.” — W.S. Merwin Who are the biggest influences in your life? Influenced to Make Gifts This year, I am undertaking something different for Christmas. First, I am shopping early. Second, I am barely shopping. Third, I…
The Year of the Snake
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” ― Confucius Share what you know about the year you were born. When I was in elementary school, I had a classmate who was Chinese and his family had invited the class to their Chinese New Year exhibit, where we all learned about our zodiacs…
Daily Art Musings: Judging Fashion in a Different Way
“I’m not pretty, and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. I have something much better. I have style.” ― Iris Apfel Let’s ramble a bit about judgement… Have you ever wondered about whether or not you are a good judge of character? I like to think that I am decent at it, however,…
Happy Yule: A Recipe for Happiness
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ― Mahatma Gandhi Today is the Winter Solstice, and last night we experienced the New Moon. An extra dark and long night paved over us, so now we must make way for the return of the sun and brighter…
The Art of Patience: The Three-Year Sweater
“Goals are like apples in a tree. Some are a little higher than others, so you just have to jump higher.” ― Morten Andersen If there is one thing people have said to me over and over, it is that I have an incredible amount of patience. However, I hope one day that that they…
Daily Art Musings: A First Time for Starting Over; The Necessary Evil of Frogging
“You can’t be afraid to burn everything down and start from scratch. Because the only direction you will go from there, is up. New opportunities will have no choice but to eventually open up for you.” ― Robin S. Baker I was once in love with a very expensive yarn, heathered in shades of olive, moss,…
Daily Art Musings: Forest Walks and Local Colors
“entering the woods a hiking stick selects me to carry it” ― Cor van den Heuvel, Modern Haiku 44:1, Winter–Spring 2013 There was a time when I was incredibly active: soccer, track, gymnastics, martial arts, weight training, and swimming were all part of my life simultaneously and as easy to conduct as breathing. However, being an athlete…
Daily Art Musings: Admiring Folk Art
“He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina It occurred to me just how much American culture has undergone a sort of “grayification,” “squarification,” and “boxification,” which has inevitably led to a…
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice: A Recipe for Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate
“I don’t see how a pumpkin patch could be more sincere than this one.” ― It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown I thought I should share yet more pumpkin spice this season. I am unashamed to love this flavor, especially when lovingly mixed with one of my favorite hot beverages: white hot chocolate. I know……
Yarn Weights for Regular People
“There’s great value to knitting or digging up your garden or chopping up vegetables for soup, because you’re taking some time away from turning the pages, answering your emails, talking to people on the phone, and you’re letting your brain process whatever is stuck up in there.” — Chellie Pingree The World of Yarn When…
Folkcrafts, Art, and Thoughts 