Okay, I’ve known it for seven years now. Feminine products and disposable diapers contain dioxin, a cancer-causing by-product of chlorine bleaching and pesticide spraying. A double-whammy, no? You get your cotton, which is heavily sprayed with pesticides while growing, then you bleach it with chlorine, and you get a lovely, pristine-looking tampon or pad:

For some reason it seems we modern women need our feminine products (and our babies’ diapers) to be blindingly white before we soil them and throw them away. Why? And: do we really? Read the rest of this entry »

How much do I want this?

Read the rest of this entry »

…I’ve just had a rather unplanned hiatus.

I just. couldn’t. manage. to write. Sorry.

But I did knit…a lot actually!

Two purses, that I then felted (I am so addicted to felting now) and gave to my lovely sisters.

A hat, for my husband, with earflaps and a tassel and now, apparently, a fleece lining to mitigate the itching (it is wool, after all dear!). Oh yeah, and I felted it, too.

Slippers, for my daughters, which are apparently too itchy (again…it’s WOOL people!) for one of the girls, and also too silly-looking (well la-di-da, Fashion Girl). Yup, felted those, too.

And I sewed: two identical nightgowns for my two un-identical daughters. At least this one is loved by Fashion Girl (aka Girl2), who hates her slippers. Girl1 (who liked her slippers) felt the nightgown was – well – too pink-ish.

Funny. I thought the husky dogs on it would appeal to the animal lover in her. Sigh. Looks like Girl1 now has two pairs of new slippers, and Girl2 now has two new nightgowns!

So you see why I have been away so long.

Forgiven?

Well, yesterday was the Canada Post deadline for express post packages within Canada, so I frantically put together boxes full of my signature peppermint bark, whipped shortbread cookies, home-roasted coffee beans and scrapbook layouts, nicely framed and ready to hang on the wall. A little nicer than class photos, I think.

Here they are…

This one above is for Poppa…it’s pics of the girls at his farm this spring/summer. They had so much fun…I thought this paper (Close To My Heart’s Caprice) was so perfect for both the colours of the photos but also the feel; very summer, very country, very floral.

This one (above) is for Gramma & Bobo (hey, you! no peeking G&B!) There’s 2 of ‘em, so they get a 2-page layout, LOL. Well, partly that and partly there were only 3 frames left at Michaels. And, most importantly, they’re MY PARENTS so when I make the gifts, they get preferential treatment!

You remember Donny and Marie, right?

Marie was “a little bit country”, and Donny was “a little bit rock ‘n roll”. (Link to the song here, if you like. You’re welcome.)

Well, the Mormon wonder-twins might have rock ‘n roll and country covered, but I’m a little bit hippy.

Maybe it comes from being born in the sixties (I was actually born in May 1969 – almost the seventies – but I love being able to say: “I was born in the sixties!”), or maybe it was the repeated exposure to this as a child:

And by the way, if you haven’t played Free to Be, You and Me for your children, you’re all missing out! On valuable lessons like tolerance, acceptance, equality. *SIGH* Good, kind hippy values that have been swept under the carpet in our reactionary times.

Here’s my favourite: “Parents are People”, sung by Marlo Thomas and a young (and hot!) Harry Belafonte: Read the rest of this entry »