Friday, April 29, 2011

arrivING soon (in june to be exact!)


 Isn't she adorable?  We went out today to pick out which puppy from the litter we wanted. This is the yellow lab we picked out. June just can't come fast enough! :) (Sorry for the bad picture quality. All we had with us were our phones).

Thursday, April 28, 2011

air conditionING

the other day along the freeway, i passed a sign,

"FRESH BLUEBERRIES, PICK YOUR OWN,"

it said boldly, blue letters on a clean white square.

i smiled, as i thought about how charming it would all be ,
picking blueberries on some sunny spring day, popping a few into my mouth, every now and again.

then i wondered,

what would happen if i told some woman,
from a hundred years ago, or even a thousand , it doesn't really matter,
about that sign,

"pick your own!" she would sigh and shout,
throwing her sturdy arms into the air,
"my whole life, i've been pickin' my own!
and cleanin' my own, and cookin' my own,
and his own, and their own! pick my own.
of all the...."

...and her voice would trail off as she thundered into the other room,
to do some thing that needed doing.

i think she would jump at the chance
to walk alone, into some fluorescent lit supermarket,
and feel the cool manufactured air breeze over her summer-stained skin,

and pick out the first, square, plastic quart of berries she saw,
throwing it in the cart, on top of the box of kix cereal,
and the boneless skinless chicken breasts.

she would remember the days she spent, up with the sun, and out in it,

knees pushing against the hot ancient earth, as she knelt down,
filling the apron that she starched herself,  watching the scarlet blue blood,
staining the perfect white,
pausing, as she used the back of or her arm to wipe the sweat from her wrinkled brow.

"pick your own." she would mutter and shake her head,
throwing in an extra plastic quart,
just for good measure.




Image Credit: Google Images

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

5 thINGs i love for under $5

Earl grey tea from this website!



Seeds....from here!
These are purple cherokee tomatos and I'm trying to grow them this year!




Happy mug from drugmart. I only paid 89 cents!



This knitting pattern. I'm totally making these someday. :)


One of Starbuck's newest additions--the Cocoa Cappuccino. You can get it iced or hot. Yummmmm.







Hope you are all having a great week! I promise when school is over to actually write something.



Image Credits: www.starbucks.com, www.etsy.com, Google Image, https://secure.spicemerchants.biz/sm/

Sunday, April 17, 2011

livING

                                        In the spring of the year,

there is so much life.


There is rain and grass and sun,
and they all need each other.

There are lambs.
New and white and warm,
their legs shaky, as they learn to walk in the world,
and their pink tongues, thirsty for milk.

We go outside, and dance in the streets, with our faces tilted to the sky,
and we plow the soft, cool,  earth,
and dream of what is to come of it.

We still, but barely, remember that there was winter, and cold.
Days and days where there was not sun,
Only piles and piles of snow.
And wind, that aged our faces and made our skin rough.

We have almost forgotten the months we've weathered,
and how,
 in those months, we almost forgot there was anything else.

But spring still came to us,

new and muddy,
and we still rejoice and we laugh our laughs,
and smile our smiles, when it does.
When it finally does.

The earth breaks open,
and we carefully sow the seeds, and we wait.

For in the spring of the year,
there is so much life.

Monday, April 11, 2011

knittING news

So I haven't done a knitting update in quite sometime. Let's do this.

First of all our famous knitter...I love this one!


It's FDR! He was a knitter! I would love to find more man knitters.

Next on the knitting docket, I found this mug:


I want it.


Also....in a few short week I will be attending....The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!!!Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. A festival, in Maryland, dedicated entirely to all things wool and fiber related. You can see sheep, shear sheep, watch them be herded, eat sheep (yup, gyros...sorry sheep), learn to spin wool, knit, felt...and any other fiber related activity you could possibly imagine. There is even a parade of sheep which I completely plan on attending. I am way too excited! This is my first major fiber festival and I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

Here's the flyer:



Finally, I really really really (at least I think so) want to get a knitting related tattoo. Maybe a ball of yarn or something. I have to think this through though, because....I.am.a.wimp....not mention a chicken. As I've thought about it I think of how cool it would be then it somehow morphs into thoughts like:
What if it hurts? What if I hate it after it's done? What if I can't get a job because of it? What if I get aids from the needle? What if I'm allergic to the dye and go into anaphalaxis (spelling?) and die!?

As you can see, I have let the questioning get out of hand.

But look at these cool yarn tattoo ideas:



See?  Aren't they cool? Mine probably won't be that big and it will need to be somewhere I can hide it like on my back or foot or something. Some schools don't like teachers having tattoos I guess.

 I have some other yarn tattoo ideas bouncing around in my head. :)


So, that's my update...the funniest and saddest part is that due to blogging and school, I've had very little time for actual knitting. However I have worked on the leg warmers a little. Soon, I will post some pics of my progress so far.

Have a great day...Keep Calm...and Carry Yarn!


Image credit: All images from Google Images and http://www.sheepandwool.org/ .

Friday, April 8, 2011

watchING a miracle

Ok. So I know I've posted a lot lately, but I just HAVE to tell you about this link. It's from one of my favorite blogs. It's a farm blog from Juniper Moon Farms. They are a fiber farm. Raising their own sheep and selling its fiber. It's so so fabulous.

It's lambing season at Juniper Moon and it's so so exciting! You can click on the above link to be connected to one of the LambCams (there are actually 3) and you can actually watch the mother's with their baby lambs....live! If you're lucky you can actually watch a live birth. Which, I realize to some people might be gross, but I think it's so cool and hope I manage to catch a birth this season. Even if there isn't a lamb currently being born, this lambcam almost always has lambs that you can watch as they feed and learn to walk etc. It's way too cute. Anyway, just thought I'd share. :)

Image Credit: Google Image

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

callING all rebels

Rebels wanted:



We teachers...need rebels in our proud profession.

Teachers tend to be the straight A, club president, rule follower crowd.

we love structure.

we covet order and routine, and we live on a schedule of bells and breaks.
work in the fall and spring....have the summer off...then do it all over again.

lunch is always...and i mean always at 12:15

we got A's for the sake of A's

and we started clubs so that the word "president" was on our resumes.

We use our turn signals, and very seldom speed.

It's not a bad thing....

its just what we tend to be like.



What we need....are some rebels.


rebels are not afraid.

they don't mind if the rules change, because they weren't planning on following them anyway.

rebel's don't flinch at danger but rather invite it,
and they aren't afraid of the F-word.

They ask "why?" and smirk at you when you say "Because I said so."

Rebel's have an edge, and an appeal, as they sit quietly and observe with their arms folded cooly across their chest.

We need a teacher with a tattoo, or maybe several.

we need the black sheep.

We need the kid who laughed at the school handbook if he even read it, which he probably didn't.


If you are a rebel and you're reading this, you are wanted.

I can't promise you a great paycheck,
and I can promise that you will be surrounded by the over acheivers that probably bug the H*** out of you.

But I think you'll love it.


I think you'll change things,




and that's just what we need.

makING a difference

I LOVE this. His name is Taylor Mali, and he does poetry slams and he is a teacher. Sorry if the profanity (there's only two spots) is offensive to you. Its just a little towards the end. One of my professors showed this one in class and its TOTALLY worth watching:



I promise a "real" post soon, where I actually write something.... :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

procrastinatING...

...because I am, and you probably are, and it's the last month of school, and we could all use a laugh: