lorigami

personal experiment in how much food she could grow on a city lot.

NoImpactMan had a post this morning about happiness. It was a repeat, but one with good timing as this is something I’ve been contemplating more often lately as I try and simplify my life even more.

I’ve often wryly noted that change seems to be the only constant in my life, but the reality is that I like change, I like learning new things, I like trying to make things better. I think a lot of people feel this way, but that their definition of “better” centers around a new object or more money. This isn’t because they are bad people or anything, it’s just sort of what our society has become - how so many people have grown up. NoImpact Man talks about how he thinks this is in part because we’ve become less religious, and there hasn’t been much put forth to replace the role of the Church in our lives. Instead of turning to Faith when we are feeling low, we turn to Possessions to fill the void.
He makes a good point, and it’s easy to see that played out all around. Just hearing 5 minutes of campaign coverage, or listening to a friend talk about her co-workers who bully and play power games, or seeing how many people in the world project their own insecurities into manufactured reasons to hate another person… all these things are symptoms of fear and none of them seem very different than the guy who buys the Hummer so he’s the biggest thing on the road.

I don’t really know how to make any of that better, the only thing I know how to do is to try and not let myself get tangled up in other people’s messes. It’s difficult for me to understand or respect people determined to focus on negativity and control, the best I can do is extricate myself as politely as possible and move on. I’ve always thought the answers to the happiness issue were found in connecting with other people and working together to accomplish more that you could on your own. At least that’s what makes me happy.

Opportunities can arise out of the oddest situations. You can start in one direction and find yourself totally turned off by the time you see the reality the destination, but then there’s that side road at the last minute that winds up taking you exactly where you need to be. Life is funny that way, isn’t it?

I totally forgot to post about the Inman Park festival, oops. Umm, we were there? Ha.
It poured like crazy Saturday night and Sunday, but we did surprisingly well given that. The parade was awesome as usual, fewer political protest floats and more environmental ones, which was cool. What was not cool was all the idiot politicians in their gas guzzling cars. The exhaust nearly made me pass out at one point. Ugh.

Here’s an awesome photo of a very satisfied customer:

I’m exhausted today, and staring at a house that looks like a craft tornado hit it, in addition to all the other crap that has been accumulating. It’s slightly overwhelming and the continued rain just makes me want to take a nap. I think I need to make another pot of coffee.

My Grampa didn’t have his surgery last week. There was a complication that would have been extremely problematic. They’ve given him some different medecine and will try again this week. I think I’m going up there at the end of the week to see him, if we can. We’ve been trying to plan to go up there this week, but everything has been so up in the air. It still is, but what can you do? Just trying to keep it together and not let the worry monster take over.

Ok, about that second pot of coffee…..

My Grampa is having heart surgery today. If you believe in prayer, or just positive energy, directing a little his way would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

I love you Grampa.

So every week or so, the ladies of SuperCute! get together to work on crafty projects. It’s a little different than a regular craft night because we aren’t working on personal projects. Instead, we try and collaborate on projects that will help us make a difference in the world. We call these project nights Mission:Possible! because we really do think that all it takes is showing people how things can easily be different, and if the results are cute to boot? Well it’s just that much better!

Last night we worked on making shopping bags for the upcoming Inman Park Festival. Originally, we’d planned to make them out of newspaper, but we realized that if we made them out of something a little sturdier, perhaps people would use them for all their day’s purchases and not use any plastic bags at all. Maybe, just maybe, they would even continue to use them for errands beyond the festival! (I think I would just faint right on the floor out of joy if I ever saw one of our bags in Target. srsly.)

Anyway, Becky likes to use vintage sheets for parts of her lunch sets, and sometimes those come in sets. This means there’s always a bunch leftover because who wants 74 lunch kits out of the same fabric? haha. So, we started working our way thru her leftovers.

These are just a simple rectangular shape, with stitched sides and triangles sewn into the bottom to give it what would be a grovery-bag shape if it were paper. The softness of the fabric makes them hang like hobo bags, which we sort of really dig. The straps are scraps from either the edges of pillowcases, or just leftover strips of fabric from our pile that are too small to use for much else. These are simply sewn freebies that will hopefully get a few uses from our customers. I think we’ll even offer a discount on future purchases if they bring the bag back to be refilled, hahaha.

First, wash and iron!

next: sew!!!

third, put on handles!

finished bags!

In honor of earth day, I present a video talk via TED.com from William McDonough. William McDonough is the author of the book Cradle to Cradle . It’s 20 minutes long, and the beginning is more than a little scary, but just stay for the end to see the city he is building. You won’t regret it. Living better and happier for less money and healing the planet? It IS possible, we just have to focus on what we want, instead of what we are afraid of.

entire film here:

Silva, by the awesome Scott Thigpen:

more of his work here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sthig/sets/72157604677026001/

Anyone following this blog knows one of my side projects is SuperCute!, which is a collaborative project with Becky and Liz. One of the things we feel really strongly about is using our crafting to try and make a difference in the way people think about their day to day lives and habits. We call it Craftivism, but that term can mean different things to different people, so we thought maybe we would take a moment to write a little bit about what that word meant to us as individuals. Everyone’s responses will be up over at the SuperCute! blog, but I thought I’d also put mine here…

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In the most obvious sense, to me Craftivism means Activism, as expressed by Crafting.
I think a big part of it is showing people how their lives can be different by doing things themselves, or by changing their habits to ones that are not only more sustainable, but prettier and more personalized, and just more fun! Craftivism is a way to combat the mass-marketing media, and to really express yourself and your beliefs. I also think a big chunk of it revolves around supporting a different type of economy, a smaller, more local one which by default has less impact overall as well as more transparency and acountability.

with the amazing Scar13, don’t miss it!

Lucky #7!!! SuperCute! will be here and we’re so excited about it we can hardly wait!!!!!