Community for Women Who Blog

I am a firm believer in the idea that the global communion of women--lovers, wives, matriarchs, women artists, spiritual sisters--is what can bring joyful change and peace to this world. Seeing the many ways we are finding to reach out to one another via the internet makes me hopeful...

If you are not already a member, check out http://www.blogher.com/ The Community for Women Who Blog I just found this resource and am overjoyed at seeing the vast array of topics and projects women are working on :)

I blog, therefore I am.....? Rachel's new blog

I have three children. My youngest is two years old. We homeschool. Hmmm...I don't always have a lot of time available to create ;) Shutting myself up in my "studio" for hours is pretty much never an option. But it has to happen. I've struggled with how to balance it all, but I can feel the need for it to become a priority rising within me. Are there other artist/moms out there struggling with this? I would love to here from you!! Come along with me as I try my damnedest to make it work...

http://www.thischromaticlife.blogspot.com/

Let it Snow!

Soooo hard to roll out of my warm bed this morning when this was my view on both sides! King Winter has come early this year. I'm not sure I am ready, but he does do beautiful work!
The children are enchanted by the winter wonderland and can't wait to make snow angels. I however will be making extra Yerba Mate and snuggling on the couch with my warm dog and a good book:)

Submit Your Favorite Tea Blend!!

Herbal Tea

This week I am going to work on making tea blends for the winter season. Some for giving, but mostly for my own drinking.

I use re-usable muslin tea bags and seal-your own bags. I buy loose tea in bulk from a local health food store. About twice a year, I spread all my herbs out on my harvest table, get out my favorite mortar and pestle and make all my favorite blends.

This year, I am asking for your help. I want to know what your favorite blends are. What are your favorite spicy teas? fruity teas? medicinal teas? teas for detox? teas for clarity? sleepy teas? teas for energy?

PLEASE leave your favorite recipe in the comments section and I will add them to this blog post.

What is your favorite tea for zen-ness?

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Here is a recipe for Chai Tea submitted by Earth Mama from http://www.chailatterecipes.com/

Chai Tea Ingredients:

Black Tea 10 teaspoons (25grams)(I prefer using Formosan Tea)

Cardamon Seeds (5 grams)

Cinnamon Sticks (2-3 sticks) or Cinnamon Ground 2 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams)

Ginger Powder (1 teaspoon)

1 Clove Ground

How to Make Chai Tea:
Please note there are many ways to make Chai Tea and this is one which I prefer. Listed below are other tips and variations you can try.

Step 1: Using a coffee/spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind up spices.

Step 2: Add tea to spice mixture. Fill tea pot or coffee plunger with boiling water and add spice mixture. Use 3/4 cup boiling water and 4 teaspoons of tea/spice mixture per serve. Let stand 3-4 minutes. Heat milk using stove top, microwave or even better use a coffee machine so you can produce frothy milk. This gives a cafe style chai tea latte. Add heated milk and sweeten to taste.

Tips and Hints for making Chai Tea:
If you don't have a grinder, you can use a mortar and pestle, however you should grind the ingredients separately to avoid mix becoming too fine.
This recipe is unsweetened so you can add sugar to suit your taste.

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Granny Sue said...

My favorite is orange spice tea. I used to make a blend of raspberry leaves, orange peel and rose hips that was fruity and delicious.

Thank you, sounds wanderful!

It's America Recycles Day!

America Recycles Day - Nov. 15

America Recycles Day (ARD), held every year on November 15, is a national campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of recycling and buying products made with recycled materials. Buying recycled is the step that "closes the recycling loop." Both Kansas and Missouri are official partners in this national effort and host events to help spread the message.

Each year, the MARC Solid Waste Management District, in cooperation with local governments, businesses and non-profits, coordinates the regional celebration.

How to get involved:

Visit and promote RecycleSpot.org – RecycleSpot.org is the region’s one-stop spot for recycling information. It lists everything that is recyclable in the metro area and where to take it. Post RecycleSpot.org flyers, stickers and magnets. to help promote the Web site.

Take the ARD pledge – Make a personal pledge to recycle, buy recycled and spread the word about recycling. Pledge online at America Recycles Day.

Get youth involved - This ARD kids activity (pdf) is designed to encourage children to be more involved in recycling and to care for the environment. By completing certain activities, a child can receive an America Recycles Day prize.

Indie Craft Contest!

Indie craft contest!

Allison Adoff of CHA emailed me last week and asked me to blog about a wonderful new contest and booth they are putting together for January's CHA in Anaheim. They are launching a new booth celebrating indie crafters and artists and are looking for 30 exceptional pieces to showcase in their Indie Craft booth!She says, "The purpose of the Indie Craft booth is to introduce Indie Crafting to the general craft industry and to get them excited about this growing movement. The highlight of the Indie Craft booth will be a display of the 30 Indie craft project winners submitted for the CHA Indie Crafting Contest which I am announcing this week. This contest is open to all crafters.
Here are the nitty-gritty details!

If you’re interested in sharing your crafts with the world this is your chance!
Just send us a photo and description of your work and we will select the top 30 projects and display them.
Guidelines:- Project must be innovative and creative. This contest is open to ALL crafters
Completed winning projects must fit in a 1 ½’ wide by 3’ high by 1’ deep space or 3’ wide by 3’high by 1’ deep space.
You may enter up to five projects.
How to Enter- Email a photograph and description of your project(s) to aadoff@craftandhobby.org.
Entrants have until November 21, 2008 to submit original ideas to be considered in the contest. We will notify you if you are a winner by December 19, 2008.
Winners will be chosen from entries received based upon quality and originality. Winners are responsible for shipping projects to CHA. Projects will be returned free of charge.
Opportunities for Winners
1. Extensive visibility and promotion. Projects will be displayed in a showcase located in the Indie Craft section of the Innovations booth on the Show floor. Over 15,000 show attendees will have the opportunity to view the winning projects
.2. Selected winners will have an opportunity to provide individual promotional sheets that will be available at the booth for attendees to take.
For more info please visit the CHA site!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

(November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902)

When Elizabeth Cady married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton in 1840, she'd already observed enough about the legal relationships between men and women to insist that the word obey be dropped from the ceremony.
An active abolitionist herself, Stanton was outraged when the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, also in 1840, denied official standing to women delegates, including Lucretia Mott. In 1848, she and Mott called for a women's rights convention to be held in Seneca Falls, New York. That convention, and the Declaration of Sentiments written by Stanton which was approved there, is credited with initiating the long struggle towards women's rights and woman suffrage.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony(click image for a larger version)Courtesy of the Library of Congress.Modifications © 2003 Jone Johnson Lewis. Licensed to About.com.
After 1851, Stanton worked in close partnership with Susan B. Anthony. Stanton often served as the writer and Anthony as the strategist in this effective working relationship. After the Civil War, Stanton and Anthony were among those who were determined to focus on female suffrage when only voting rights of freed males were addressed in Reconstruction. They founded the National Woman Suffrage Association and Stanton served as president.
When the NWSA and the rival American Woman Suffrage Association finally merged in 1890, Stanton served as the president of the resulting National American Woman Suffrage Association.
In her later years she added to her speech- and article-writing a history of the suffrage movement, her autobiography Eighty Years and More, and a controversial critique of women's treatment by religion, The Woman's Bible.
While Stanton is best known for her long contribution to the woman suffrage struggle, she was also active and effective in winning property rights for married women, equal guardianship of children, and liberalized divorce laws so that women could leave marriages that were often abusive of the wife, the children, and the economic health of the family.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton died in New York on October 26, 1902, with nearly 20 years to go before the United States granted women the right to vote.

Happy Ill (Full Moon Poya Day in November)

The Significance of Poya

Even before the birth of Buddhism, Asian ascetics in the ancient times when there were no calendars, made it a practice on full moon days to cease worldly pursuits and engage themselves in religious activities.

The Buddha adopted this practice and from this developed the preaching of the Buddhist texts and commentaries (bana) in monasteries and temples on full moon Poya days. And when the Venerable Arahat Mahinda Thero introduced Buddhism to this country in 247 BC he also introduced the Poya tradition. Following is a brief description of the 12 Poyas in the Buddhist calendar and their significance.

Dear President-Elect Obama,

*This is a great letter written by Elizabeth Terry from the ever-inspiring blog Fake Plastic Fish*

Dear President-Elect Obama,

As I write to you this day after the most exciting election in my 43 years, I want to thank you. You have inspired not only the people of the United States but of the entire world. You weave a beautiful story of hope for people who have become tired and cynical and jaded by political rhetoric.

Here are some of my hopes.

I hope that while we're talking of "restoring prosperity" and "putting our people back to work" we're also working to change the fundamental basis on which prosperity is measured. Is the American Dream the pursuit of newer and bigger houses and cars and the latest gadgets? Higher consumption of the earth's resources? Is that what healing the economy means? Or can we change our language to encourage deeper American values? Voluntary simplicity? Sustainable living? Connections among people over material wealth? The world cannot afford for us to continue trashing the planet as we have been. And as someone with the great ability to use words to inspire hope and change, you are in a unique position to change the course of our imaginations and help us redefine how we measure prosperity.

We need jobs, of course. Let's make them green and inclusive of all segments of society. Van Jones has offered a beautiful plan in his book, The Green Collar Economy. Let's create an economy that measures not only dollars in the bank but also the satisfaction that one's work is helping to sustain life on the planet.

We want to feel secure, of course. Let's create the security of knowing that we are not creating a terrible mess today for our children to deal with tomorrow. To that end, I urge you to attend the U.N. Climate meetings in Poland this December and promise that the U.S. will lead the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping other developing nations to do the same.

We all want access to health care. Let's also take care of the health of our planet, which ultimately affects the health of us all. Right now, there is an area in the North Pacific Ocean greater than the size of Texas that is filled with plastic. Marine researchers describe it as a "plastic soup." And the plastic didn't just come from vessels dumping their waste at sea. No, the plastic comes from you and me and everyone who has ever used and thrown away plastic products. Plastic lasts forever. It mimics food for multitudes of marine animals who eat the plastic and feed it to their young. It migrates up the food chain into the fish that we ourselves eat, including toxins that accumulate on its surfaces.

Plastic is a great invention and can also be a great threat to the health care and security of humans and animals on this planet. Thousands and thousands of individuals are working to make changes in our own lives to protect the earth, to consume less, and to choose less toxic alternatives, like avoiding plastics, but we are not enough to solve these types of environmental problems. We need our government to hold companies responsible for the full life cycles of the products they produce, we need stricter regulations against toxic products, and we also need a national mindset that encourages consumers to cut back on disposable products and look to what is durable and energy-efficient and timeless.

Protecting the planet is about more than cutting emissions, although that seems to be the big focus of the moment. We also need to cut our consumption and change our priorities. As president, you can set policies in that direction. But we also need you to use your powerful skills of language to light up our minds and show us the value in simple, sustainable, compassionate living. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have done so far and all you will do in the next four years. You've asked me to hope. Some of my hope is in your hands.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth G. Terry
Oakland, CA

The Beckoning of Lovely

If you have not yet seen these videos...watch them now!

17 Things I Made by Amy Krouse Rosenthal


The Beckoning of Lovely by Amy Krouse Rosenthal


So inspiring... And the second video calls for YOUR lovely creations. Find out more at http://www.whoisamy.wordpress.com
I think as women, we especially have a need to create something beautiful, something meaningful every day...even if it is only a well-made bed or a peanutbutter sandwich.

A grateful thanks to Amanda Soule and her Soulemama blog (http://soulemama.typepad.com/) on creative parenting, where I found these links.

Basking.....

This is my view from the hammock in my back yard. I took advantage of this God-created genius and breathed it in for over an hour. What a peaceful afternoon.