Journey Seeds

War/No More Trouble

local bounty

Emma performed at The Vanilla Bean Songwriters Showcase

New England Fiddle Contest

Our first CSA pickup from Birdsong Farm.  Bruce has a limited number of us that he packs things up for on the day before his market in Coventry.  It was nice to get to talk with the farmers.  We checked out the coldhouse that my husband built for his farm.  He says its working nicely and making his life alot easier for packing up and preparing for markets and keeping foods fresh.  What a beautiful bounty.  We have several varieties of lettuce, bok choy, scallions, snap peas, swiss chard, broccoli raab, eggs...

Radical Knitting

A Radical Act of Knitting in honor of Mother's Day!

Calling all Codepink knitters! We are creating a beautiful, quilted cozy to cover the fence in front of the White House to honor Mother's Day. The message will be “We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child”-inspired by Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation. We’ll be piecing it together from individual squares knitted by YOU as part of the 24 hour Mother’s Day vigil for Women who live in War Zones.  The best part is you don’t have to be an experienced knitter to help!  This is perfect for knitters of all skill levels—and a great opportunity for those who want to learn! Celebrate the time honored tradition of the radical act of knitting. How-to-knit page here (just in case!)

What we need:

4” x 4” squares, as tightly knit as you can make them, but the stitch of your choice 

Yarn in either dark green or a fabulous shade of pink- take a little inspiration from CODEPINK’s signaturePINK. Note: We will need a ratio of about 5 pink squares to 1 green square to spell out the message.

We need all pieces by May 4th so get out your needles gals (and guys)!

Please take 1 minute to send us a quick email to tell us how many squares you plan to make and in what colors. We need to know in order to make sure we have enough to spell out our message. Email Janna at codepinkcozy[at]gmail.com

Send your knitted creations to:
CODEPINK House
712 5th Street NE
Washington, D.C. 
20002

Please note:
Please remember to email us here to let us know what you sent. We’ll keep you informed as to whether we’ll need more pinks or more greens as we near the deadline for the squares to arrive at the PINK house, deadline is May 4th.

Please safety pin your name and city to each square, we hope to be able to show you where your square(s) are in the finished quilt.

Pass this invitation on to fellow knitters. It will be a beautiful start to Mother’s Day and we would love to have thousands of women present with us with the love, passion and desire for no war in sewn into their squares.

Simple Sunday

All Photos taken from Flickr.  

Colored Pencils

I planned on making Kimchi today.  I got all the ingredients yesterday and had anticipated making it today for folks in the house that have come down with colds.  Alas, I've come down with the cold today and just plain old don't feel like working on such a big food project.  Besides, the idea was for the healing properties to infuse everyone but, if I make it now it seems I'd be infecting the kimchi with my sickness.  So, instead I played with colored pencils and dreamed about the springtime.  I certainly couldn't fit everything into the drawing and i have to say my skills are limited but, it was a fun exercise to give a try.

A simple drawing of our property.  Most everything is here.  The starred items are projects to be completed.

Recycled Houses

Dan Philips is helping folks build recycled homes at affordable prices.  Check out this awesome idea that I found over on Groovy Green. I love that the apprentice home builder talks about planting seeds.  That's what this blog Journeyseeds is all about. It's my favorite and most inspiring thing to do...find ideas and spread them out around the world. Even if just one person gets some inspiration from a seed I plant...it makes me so happy!

Vasalisa the Wise

Vasalisa's Doll

I made this Journey Doll 3 years ago for a Community Play of the Russian Folktale of Vasalisa the Wise...that a group of us put on.  My daughter was Vasalisa and this is the doll I made for her to carry in the story. I didn't love the white apron on her but, it was in the story...scroll down to see a photo of her without it. I wish I could take better photos...she's so much prettier in person! The fabrics are a velveteen. I made a matching outfit for my daughter as well. Vasalisa carries a small pocket doll in the story but I made this one big so that the audience could see her, as it was a huge outdoor production.  We made huge skeleton props, had stilters, huge hand props, masks, an entire little house setup, live music...visitors to the story walked from scene to scene as a group by candlelight. It was magnificent!  I don't have photos from the play available but, I came across this doll today and wanted to share.  I have made many dolls and marionettes in the past. Of course there a many versions of this story, with many interpretations. As told by Clarissa Pinkola Estes...The story of Vasalisa the Wise.

Milkweed Project

Immunity from the Farm

I received my gift from Farm At Coventry.  This was from the OneWorldOneHeart giveaway project that I participated in. Check out the Farm At Coventry site and see some beautiful photos of the goings on there.  They did this cool montage of the farm, made by Smilebox that is a fine uplifter of spirits right about now!  Thanks so much Susan...

Milkweed Project

I'm participating in The Milkweed Project put on by Shan Bryan-Hanson

What is The Milkweed Project? The Milkweed Project is a collaborative artwork currently in progress.  Hundreds of fiber artists and crafters are knitting, crocheting, felting and spinning white and off-white creations that will be assembled into a giant milkweed pod.  The final, assembled piece is intended to capture the essence of a milkweed pod; its soft, ethereal beauty and its importance to the natural world.  

The Milkweed Project is about our connection to each other, to nature, to the past, present and future. 

Shan Bryan-Hanson, the project architect, is an artist and teacher.  The Daily Stitch is her blog.

I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to knit but, I think that it will be thin and very long.  I might even use a knitting mushroom to make it. I might make something lacey also.  I am excited to be working on a project in collaboration with so many other knitters from around the world.  I'm going to contact a local art gallery to see if we can have it shown here in our area.  There is also a group on Ravelry for this project as well at The Pod.  

Birthday Bash

The Coop Birthday party was a blast!

Echo Uganda warming up...where are you Kristen?

Oh...there you are!

Doug Schaefer from the Cankickers

Daniel Thompson of the Cankickers....

Daniel Spurr of the Cankickers...

Valentine Kitchen

Today is our local food co-op's 29th birthday!  They'll  have 29 birthday cakes, music, friends and of course great local food. I've been filling my kitchen with food from the coop for 23 years now.  Though it's grown over the years and moved several times...it still has a great vibe while they strive to provide us with local and sustainably grown food. I hope everyone finds a bit of the love vibration wherever you are...

Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design

I'm reading this book Handmade Nation .  The Documentary  is being shown in select places now. I love what's sprung up around the DIY community.  Everyone is an artist!

Excerpt from the book:

Craft: It's What You Make of It

by Andrew Wagner

The term "do it yourself" (or "DIY") as a point of differentiation within the world of craft has always struck me as odd. Aren't the words "craft" and "DIY" interchangeable?  Aren't all makers, to some extent, doing it themselves?  Like everything else in life, though, craft is not linear.  And when confronted with the tangled webs that have been woven into the realm of craft, human instinct kicks in and inititates an innate drive for definition.  But craft is a big, unwieldly beast of a phenomenon not so easily wrestled into its Sunday best. Encompassing not just a singular activity (in a very broad sense, the act of "making"), craft also often carries with it an ideology suggesting a particular outlook on the world.  In other words, craft is not simply about making but about making a political statement - for better or worse - and has been since the days of John Ruskin, William Morris, and the Industrial Revolution.  This, of course, is where things get tricky.  Some people want to embrace craft for its essence of craftmanship - that is, the quality of a piece of work, the time and effort that went into its production.  Others are excited by craft becaue of its inherent otherness - that is, its unique ability to set its practitioners outside of mainstream industrial society.  Making your own clothes, your own dinnerware,your own art has become a way to politely (or maybe not so politely) give "the man" the middle finger, for lack of a better term.  The question then becomes, can you have one craft world without the other?

Despite what some say, it is on this slippery slope of mixed metaphors and ill-defined terms where things start to get exciting.  I like to think of craft as a living, breathing thing - something so complex and at times convoluted that one would be a fool to try to pin it down.  In this same way, I like to think of craft like I think of people - that is, creatures who are sometimes happy, sometimes sad: sometimes angry and violent, other times solemn and passive.  A person is not complete if they are simply one way or the other.  In much the same way, craft is not really complete if it is stictly confined by narrow definitions that fail to capture its vastness.  Craft, removed from its political energy and ideologies, always seems to be missing something, while craft that exists merely as a way to make a statement seems equally at a loss.  Therefore, one thing on which everyone seems to agree is that craft is complex and in need of a good psychiatrist.  But those who manage to find a balance while steering clear of self-appointed mental-health workers purporting to have the craft cure-all are those who are able to create something unique - something that is truly craft, something that communicates.  Craft is challenging but craft is also engaging.  Craft is king and craft is queen.  Craft is all encompassing and craft can be a circus.  Without a doubt, it is all of this that makes craft difficult to understand and has caused fissures in the field.  Some want it this way, some want it that way.  But this uneasiness is precisely the thing that makes craft so good - it is what you make of it.

Admittedly, finding that balance on the precarious cliff call "craft" can be a struggle, as has been the case in recent history.  Craft in the 1960's and '70's swung too far in one direction, as the hippy counterculture embraced it for its political, back-to-the-earth qualities while, for the most part, tossed actual quality aside.  In reaction to this, makers of all sorts looked to distance themselves from this fervant politicizing an embrace more attributes of the art world, namely its aesthetic values.  As the '80's turned to the '90's, galleries and museums began to dominate the high-end craft world, and discussions with street-level craft movements had all but ceased.  Fortunately, with the dawn of the new millenium, we've reached a moment of possibility, a chance at reconciliation perhaps.  Maybe due to all the new (and old) information suddenly at our fingertips, the two worlds that were once connected at the hip have a chance to again draw from one another and elevate craft to its proper place in this world - as uniquely qualified leader and a grounded member of a society that often seems on the verge of chaos.  Sounds like a good plan to me."

From the Preface:

"The fair stressed the importance of independent artist-made goods and having a platform to sell them.  Without really being conscious of it, we were creating an independent economy free from corporate ties. I quickly realized I was a part of a burgeoning art community based on creativity, determination, and networking.  I knew I found my people..."

"...We are celebrating a generation of makers. We are reshaping how people consume and interpret the handmade.  I want to remind people that craft is what you make it."

"...Our community is just beginning to grow into our roles of knitter, bookbinder, shoemaker, painter, seamstress, potter, etc. We appreciate the generation of makers that came before us and from whom we draw inspiration and support.  In turn, we are setting the groundwork fo future generations, leading by example and showing the creative paths you can take."

"...For me, sewing, playing music, making art and films, and even writing this book are about having control over my life. I am making my own destiny with what I create, whether it is with the materials I pick, the colors I choose, or the words I write.  My aspiration is that the appreciation of the handmade will continue to grow in generations to come... "