arrivederci

Friday I leave for a two week tour of Italy with my mother, a holiday we've dreamed about for years and now, finally, is a reality. I have Italian phrases and travel dos and don'ts swimming around in my head with last minute to-buy lists. So, please excuse the short post, but I have some serious packing to do. Just how many pairs of shoes can one cram into a carry-on?

condiment

These past two weeks have been action-packed with outdoor activities, and not the fun let’s-go-camping kind, or the let’s-play-in-the-garden kind. We’ve been working on making our yard picture perfect for this temperamental housing market (anyone interested in a quaint Southern Oregon home?). After a day laying edging and reseeding the lawn neither I nor my hubby feel like braving the kitchen and sorry-looking fridge to scavenge for dinner. Out to eat it is! After moderate debating, we decided to give a downtown Chinese place a try. The parking lot is always full, so it couldn’t be too awful, right? We entered to find a clean, busy establishment, even though it was after eight at night and a full menu with our favorites followed by several American dishes on the back pages. We ordered vegetarian egg rolls, veggie chop suey, and hot tea. Our server was quick to bring our drinks, and accompanying the tiny teacups and shiny pot was a bright red plastic bottle. Ketchup.

sketch

I am happy to announce the arrival of a new addition to my tool family, the Flex Shaft! No, this is not the lead character to a ‘71 film (or awful 2000 remake), and yes, this tool is for my work bench and not my panty drawer. A flex shaft attaches to a Dremel drill, with a long, well, shaft, ending at a hand piece that is held like a pencil. With an additional etching bit I can now draw on metal. Which, I don’t mind saying, is pretty freaking cool.

simple shapes

Hooray for a productive day in the studio! I’m in love with the shape above. It’s a 1” recycled sterling silver circle hammered, curled, and oxidized, with the outside brushed for contrast. I’m not sure yet what to call it, or if I need to add some gold wire wrap, or just leave it alone. Below is another new earring, a teeny-tiny hammered recycled silver piece wrapped with recycled 14k gold. Not cute, but sweet. There’s a difference.

I’m also excited to announce that I’m up at NIMLI.com now! Check out my pieces here.

a dandy landscape

There are two divided camps in the rampantly spreading aesthetic of American monoculture lawn gardening; those who care and those who don't. I fall into the latter category, and the above shot accurately represents the variety of species that thrive in our tiny front lawn. It makes my neighbors twitch to look at it.

when i close my eyes i see two colors

We're painting our little house in between snow flurries/rain/hail. This weekend was all sun and time for trim.

bag lady

Bags seem to be on everyone's brain. My local food co-op will begin charging 10 cents for bags this month. Paper or plastic. How progressive! Yes, except we are a bit behind.

While Taiwan had already banned plastic bags in '01, 2002 should be crowned the year of the bag bans. Bangladesh took the lead, banning all plastic bags, and Ireland followed with a "plastax" of 15 cents for every plastic bag handed out. In '03 South Africa banned plastic bags, and the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh passed a law that could fine or imprison anyone caught using a plastic bag for up to seven years (um, a bit drastic?). By '07 the UK had caught on, with an abundance of bag banning spreading across the country. The use of plastic bags plummeted.

Where is the US, we ask? Following. Slowly. San Francisco was the first city to ban the plastic bag for major retailers in '07 and Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is pushing for a required charge of 20 cents for every disposable bag (paper or plastic) starting Jan. 1 2009. Non-recyclable plastic food containers and utensils would be banned in Seattle by 2010.

Now the plastic people are getting worried, right? Because how can they make millions off of their flimsy petroleum product if we as a world community decide we don't need them. So, they point to paper bags manufacturing process, arguing that paper is less environmentally friendly than plastic. Read a press release from the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council (seriously, who would put that organization on their resume?) concerning the debate of an Oakland, CA plastic bag ban here.

We're back to the usual paper vs. plastic debate. I'll have to agree with my co-op and choose neither. I do bring my own canvas bags with me shopping, but am guilty of using copious quantities of those thin clear plastic bags for my bulk items and produce, and this new bag charge has me searching for a way to impose a personal bag ban. I found a few answers in Project Felt's shopping green article on etsy about ways to green one's shopping experience (I love kootsac's amazing bulk bags), and ReusableBags.com provides a range of reusable container options. Instead of paper vs. plastic, now I'm debating organic cotton vs. hemp...