http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qsgBF7ZIsk&feature=related
I'll be back soon.
http://ofoceans.bandcamp.com/

Goddesses Unite

I am about to leave for my first meeting with the girls. We (me and the Cristinas) have decided to meet once a week and pursue creative projects for the next summer months. Ultimately we hope these little crafty ideas will lead to some entrepreneurial successes. I hope our conversations will become the foundations of a nonprofit or effort that allows us to work creatively for a cause that promotes community, freedom, and consciousness. So far our goals for the summer include...

1. Sowing lessons by Miss Cristina B. herself (and make little cloth animal toys)
2. Lavender t-shirt dryer pillows...to be explained later
3. Wine bottle glasses and candle holders from recycled wine bottles
4. Make Paper that will be used to create our own greeting card line to be sold locally for fun...(we started this project last night!~)
5. Screen Printing t-shirts and art pieces
6. Ice tea recipes to be sold at the farmer's market
7. Sprouting and other sustainable research projects
8. Discuss collaborative business/non-profit that will either manifest as a magazine, smoothie bar, community center and garden, or all four! (for this I have the book nonprofit for dummies which may be the route we choose depending on the successes of the next few years)
Whew~ What a list. With paper-making now in full swing we are off to a good start with our goals.

Just as a side note I will be documenting our progress towards these goals as each is achieved.

Last night Cristina and I made paper from old newspapers, computer paper, and magazines (which apparently is a no-no because of the gooey film it produces, but it still works). Good youtube videos to watch on the subject are
@ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kBmhga6suo&feature=related
@ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIF-5ZhxMmA&feature=related and @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6WeqIHyIKM&feature=related.

The first video is very basic. The second is of mother-daughter crafters and their process is almost identical to the process we used. The third video has some unique tips about blending, etc...like using colored napkins for dye. Cristina used a screen from one of the windows in her apartment (snip oops!) and tacked it onto an old picture frame. Also important to the process was making starch to later be added to the water. Starch coats it and makes the paper writable. Here is the recipe Cristina used:

1. Put 1 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. While waiting for the water to boil, dissolve 2 - 3 teaspoons of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of cold water in a cup or small bowl. Keep mixing the cornstarch while waiting for the water to boil.

3. After the water boils, pour the cornstarch mixture into the boiling water and stir for a minute or so. The liquid will be clear or slightly cloudy.

4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

We only used two teaspoons of the homemade starch in a good three gallon tub of water. Anyways...watch the video if you are interested in your own paper making. Some tips I picked up on with the process are:

- make sure you use a four or more blenders full of pulp if you want a thicker paper (it dries thin, about half of what it looks when saturated with water)

- use a variety of paper types...no just newspaper. There are also special fibers to be found in bulk.

- 0n a grand scale the job would be easier with a cross-cutting paper shredder so you don't have to tear all your little bits.

- the paper takes imprints really well like clay, so let a leaf rest in it while drying and peel away for a cool texture effect!

- if you want petals and flowers mixed in your paper do it in the blender or before the first sponging exercise (see youtube)

Anyways our paper was a little thin and the petals fell off, but successful. We plan on using the paper to make greeting cards. It is so unique and personal and easy to do. Plus recycling old stuff is super fun too. I'll have pictures as soon as I retrieve my camera.

Earthy Time

Two years ago I was looking for jobs in California about this time. I was an avid raw foodist and I decided I wanted to learn all there was about organic farming and gardening. A lot of farms in California and elsewhere have wonderful internship programs that provide housing and often a small living stipend (about $50 a week). Below are some of the internships I found while sorting through the hundreds of farms offering apprenticeships. Most of the jobs are in Cali, but a lot of search engines allow you to look nationally and globally for the same thing (www.wwoof.org ~willing workers on organic farms international). There are also tons of farms with more of an agricultural/horticultural focus. I'm a personal fan of permiculture. I'm surprised how many people are not aware of these opportunities. I remember when I was first told about americorps and I was like...what is that?! Its hard to believe all of the "free" learning resources out there. I have found it is beneficial to be opportunistic, interested, and seeking no matter what the situation...yes even at starbucks;)

http://peachfarm.anandamarga.us/Welcome.html

http://www.albafarmers.org/news/job_announcements.html

http://www.commongroundinpaloalto.org/ourvolunteers.htm

http://studentfarm.ucdavis.edu/courses/sustagcourse

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/farmdetails.php?FarmName=&City=&State=CA&

Keyword=&allDate=0&page=1&FarmID=488
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/farmdetails.php?FarmName=&City=&State=CA&

Keyword=&allDate=0&page=1&FarmID=1109
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/farmdetails.php?FarmName=&City=&State=CA&

Keyword=&allDate=0&page=1&FarmID=1937
http://www.greenstringinstitute.org/internships.html

http://www.goodworkcanada.ca/greenjobs.php?id=8149

my friend Kelly also sent me some great links for paid environmentally friendly positions:

http://www.sustainlane.com/ (go to the jobs section)
http://www.idealist.org/ (cool nonprofit jobs and related stuff for idealists)
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/environmental_jobs.htm
http://www.ecoemploy.com/
http://www.environmentalcareer.com/

I can't wait to put these resources into use! For now I will share them with the rest of the world...It did take me a good five hours to sort and compile a list of feasible internships, but then again all it takes now is a good resume and cover letter, a clear and drive, concious loving attitude. Peace and Love. Happy summertime! More plant-based blogs to come...

Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature. ~Dennis Gabor, Inventing the Future, 1963

I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn. ~A Chieftan from Nigeria

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855

okparadox: conforming to biodiversity

wordplay with john john.

okparadox?:
a·naph·o·ra
   /əˈnæfərə/ Show Spelled[uh-naf-er-uh] Show IPA
–noun
1.
Also called epanaphora. Rhetoric. repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more successive verses, clauses, or sentences.Compare epistrophe (def. 1), symploce.
2.
Grammar. the use of a word as a regular grammatical substitute for a preceding word or group of words, as the use of it and do in I know it and he does too.Compare cataphora.
3.
(sometimes initial capital letter) Eastern Church.
a.
the prayer of oblation and consecration in the Divine Liturgy during which the Eucharistic elements are offered.
b.
the part of the ceremony during which the Eucharistic elements are offered as an oblation.
Origin:
1580–90; < LL < Gk: a bringing back, repeating, equiv. to ana- ana- + -phora, akin to phérein to carry, bring; cf. -phore, -phorous

—Related forms
a·naph·o·ral, adjective
pre·a·naph·o·ral, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.

Yes to everything but no.

A few days ago I watched the movie Yes Man with my roommate. I have decided to embrace such opportunistic notions myself. My friend Madgell is very good at this lifestyle. She says yes to practically. Yes to disney land, yes to ballroom dance classes, yes to rafting in class five rapids. yes! YeS! yEs!

Back when I was paying 170.00 a month at a quaint Missoula home near the north side of town I got to know my wonderful roommate who has the most voluminous, crazy, romantically curly, black tendrils I have ever seen. Her hair reminds me of the Secret of Roan Inish *goood movie. She also happens to be a successful local artist making her own metallic flair...check out her site!~ http://www.etsy.com/shop/ciaraeverett

Anyway...I was in the shower one day and this lovely shampoo popped into my morning vision called "Yes to Carrots". While the shampoo itself did not give my hair the love it needed, I loved seeing a "Yes to" message everymorning. I also like raw foods so there is something very motivating about their marketing campaign. http://www.yestocarrots.com/about-us.html. In fact, recently I learned a little bit about shampoos and the harmful chemicals most contain. Did you know that the foamy wonder of shampoos is actually sodum lauryl sulfate and was originally marketed in WWII to increase sales...not to clean? http://www.jasoncosmetics.com/sodium lauryl sulfate.html. My stylist I've been going to for four years recommends I invest in a $50 set of organic curly hair products (devacurl) that don't sud and work great for curly locks...but I'm broke right now so...ugh. I'm going to have my friend Cristina cut it with her nail clippers. She has rad hipster hair. Yes to natural hair. Yes to dirty hair.

Yes-to http://www.actionyes.org/. This is a great poetry site that I found during a search. I really like this poet...

Building on Fire
by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

From here I can see your point
about love and real estate:
location, location, location.
Which is not to say that I love
everything, now on the verge
of losing all. Even as the trucks
roll up, I want what I wanted
before: to be right,
to hold what is in front of me,
to never see another funeral,
and to be forgiven
our serious, serious hearts.

Not Optimistic
by Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

but marvelling under the bank
of gas station lights. Surprised
at the moon still visible near morning,
and that you could have thrown
every plan with five words--
I love you. You're fired.
It could just be the calm that comes
after driving a long time,
but touching my face, I swear
it's as beautiful as Buster Keaton's when,
hands in pockets, he stepped from disaster

i actually have a media arts project I did that goes with this one. I will post it one day when I figure out how. I love it too. I am currently on page 158 of On the Road. Yes to reading. Yes to questions. Yes to vague poems. Yes to loving life.

THREE POEMS from LES MERTON
DRIFTING

But I had to get going and stop moaning, so I picked up my bag... Jack Kerouac - On the Road: Part One, Chapter 3. I’m not drifting to escape I don’t feel that I must turn over a new leaf drifting is what I do. Drifting is a way of life for me. I like drifting through highways and byways of the mind: this is a road of self discovery and for a moment; samadhi is just a few mediations away... Occasionally, I drift down the road of despair feel there is only one answer: that answer is usually a journey into the unknown without a return ticket. I know that black days are the birth of the blues and I move on... shift into the light. Step higher. Drift slowly into myself : experience day to day anxiety climax into freedom. Drifting on the road through life I instinctively feel the next step is the step that brings me near that unforgettable experience. I keep going, what’s the point of looking back? I drift, I survive. Failure, success, highs and lows make me what I am, give me personal satisfaction. Is there anything else worth living for.

ok paradox: the glass is half empty or the glass is half full...or yes i'm thirsty thanks.