Repost: Deacon Fielder Strikes Again...Boston Fielder and his Muthawit Orchestra

 ORIGINALLY POSTED 3/30/2010
finally, a release cometh...so i'm reposting...

I came to be acquainted with the inimitable Boston Fielder about half a decade ago, believe it or not, on Myspace.  I'd been writing a blog there while promoting my music and building up a following which consisted of myspacers worldwide.  We were mutual fans of each others music.  

At some point I'd posted a blog chronicling a particularly challenging period in my journey and the next day, in my inbox there was this message from him... It was raw, straightforward, scolding, as if he'd ordained himself an authority on the subject of Brig Feltus, and it was a profound moment for me.   I'm telling you this up front because there's no use in pretending to be unbiased when it comes to Boston Fielder, the Muthawit Orchestra, or Underground Railroad Broadcasting Alternatives, aka URB ALT.   We have been devoted friends for longer than linear time can define.  We knew each other in another lifetime even.  I'm sure of it.  I am a proud member of the URB ALT Family.  

 I'm telling you up front because though this is meant to spread the word about the art this man creates, it is unabashedly personal.  Let my honesty about this fact represent my confidence that what you will experience will more than justify my love of all things Muthawit!

So by all means, explore for yourself when you're done here.  You'll find me to be an honest report on the virtues of the man and his art.  I am confident of that much. 

The music of Muthawit Orchestra will not be contained in the structure of conventional musical genre descriptions.  But, oh... it is in every way music, encompassing all genres and none all at once... neo-classic, jazz, rock, funk, bluegrass, gospel, experimental, metal, psychedelic, blues, electronica...and it's own indescribable something-or-other which can only be experienced and never explained.  You can forget about trying to put this man's art into a box and tying it up in a nice neat bow.  If there is any thematic, that be it. 

You will be challenged.  You will be challenged to free your mind, to let go of your own preconditioning, break loose of the chains of stereotype, archetype, and cultural characterization.   The Muthawit orchestra's sound is beautiful noise that will touch your most guttural conscience and your most ethereal dream scapes as well.  It is frightening and sexy and comforting and confusing truth all wrapped up in compositions you can relate to despite your own conditioning.  If you are afraid of your tail feathers shaking, do not listen.  If you are afraid of arousal, do not listen.  If you fear your own emotions, this is not music for you.  Go and have a cup of tea and carry on. 

Every time I listen to this music I rejoice.  lol... I choose my friends wisely, you see...  

URB ALT is also Mr. Fielder's brainchild... a community of artists, filmmakers, photographers, poets, musicians, and their admiring relatives and friends, all attempting to live on the cutting edge of free thought and inspiration.   For me personally it has been a place where I can get to know others like me... alternative thinkers who don't quite fit the manufactured grooves of this groupthink society we all live in.    He will say differently but for me it is a movement, by pure definition of the term.   You see, I have been moved more than once since becoming a member of URB ALT.  Movement is the nature of the beast!  

Visit URB ALT

Boston's orchestra ensemble Muthawit releases its next album soon and I am honored to have been one of the first to hear its jewels pre-mastering and I couldn't wait til the proper time, so I'm telling you all about it now and getting a jump on all the promotional hype that's coming down the road closer to release date.  

As far as I'm concerned, the character of the artist will tell you a lot about their art.  This man is extraordinary in every way that I know him, and has many layers of depth, not to be digested all at once.  

Being his friend is a constant temptation to be greedy. There's stuff I just intuitively know about him but don't have to think about most of the time because it's beneath the surface.  His surfaces, when you meet him, are slow, and easy going, and gentle, just like his southern drawl.  

But don't be deceived.  Every now and then he says something or does something and I'm reminded about that other stuff beneath his skin... things that can be intimidating when one considers to look straight on.  

(Do you think people understand you? Not really. If they did they'd run...)

I gotta look with sunglasses, because he's like the sun.  Most know the sun is strong, so we resist the urge to look at it straight on.  The timid don't bother looking at all, won't even stand naked in its rays for fear of getting cancer, and in the process end up with vitamin deficiencies because of it. The foolish, in their greed, forget and try to look straight into it, and end up with scorched corneas.  

That's what he's like.  Seductive ease on the surface, and raging nuclear energy underneath!  His music is evidence of all that stuff beneath the surface, organized a bit, and recorded for posterity, which is a good thing because his sub-surface stuff evidently doesn't like repeat it self in order to keep you on your toes!

As if to prove my point, while I was writing this last bit a minute ago Fielder emailed me a disclaimer warning me not to hold him to his answers because he plans to contradict himself regularly over the next few months... Schizophrenia Convenia he calls it apparently.. ( one of a thousand Bostonisms I've had the pleasure of cracking up over all these years.)  THEN  a minute or two later, a post-post-disclaimer requesting to add Igor Stravinsky, Samuel R. Delany, and Jack Kirby to his influence list... Did I ask for an influence list? Perhaps he was referring to his heroes... Uncle Baldy, and Co...  He also informed me that this is one of a handful (literally) of interviews he's ever allowed. 

What? I haven't said much of anything about the new album? Perhaps you should go back and read this posting again and pay attention this time. 

Other than that? Have a listen here and then you'll just have to wait!




Below is a quicky email interview I sprung on him today without warning.  These are his off-the cuff answers.  Thank you Boston for your friendship, for your music, for your wisdom, and for your most admirable existence!!   May your purse reach you...

What is Muthawit? A loving homage to my elders, peers, children and folks who use common sense.  

When did you start Muthawit? When I was 7 years old.

What was your inspiration for its creation?  My grandmother's singing voice and my grandfather's speaking voice.

What is the Urb Alt Movement?  Following the North Star is a movement that inspires me personally but I wouldn't call URB ALT a movement.  The financial component would make that hypocrisy.

What makes the Urb Alt Movement important in these times?  I don't know that URB ALT is important.  Is making people feel good about themselves and others enough to say that it's important?  Hmm. 

Would you compare Urb Alt with other movements in music history? Pouring glass as slowly as possible into a pitcher.

What kind of people are participating in your movement?  People who probably don't consider it a movement because movements tend to have a head, the head is lopped off by history and then it dies, is placed in a museum or cryogenically frozen in a state of mediocrity.

Who are your musical heroes past and present day?  Uncle Baldy, Marvin Gaye, Alice Coltrane and that old dude who used to sit on the front row of the church is Tupelo and chanted "Yap, Yeah, Yap, Yeah" during Reverend Pulliam's sermon.

In 10 lines of PROSE or less, describe your musical compositions in poem. "Beauty. Booty. Baby. Bounty. BOOM."

Do you think people understand you?  Not really.  If they did they'd run.

Does being understood matter to you on a personal level?  It means everything and nothing.  Too much to do.

Does it (being understood)matter to the successful spreading of the music?  Only if the music is good does it matter and even then pirates will hijack it on the seas of change before the purse reaches the hands of the chosen.

What do you believe your art contributes to the world?  Joyful cacophony and a good reason to get out of bed or stay in bed depending on the situation.

Is there a subject matter you are afraid to write about?  No.

Is there a subject matter you love to write about?  No.

What is the story behind your new album's title Men and Women?  The death of individualism, the rise of the IRS in the micromechanics of governing and the joy of watching tadpoles swim downstream.

What was the most joyful moment in creating the music on this album?  Mixing PMS Junkie.  It was a bloody good time.

What challenges did you face in making this album?  Tenant revolt.

Is your music influenced by any esoteric or ethereal experiences?  Mainly dead people who walk with us and share our experiences.  They like to dance and eat popcorn.

Did you have any experiences of transcendance during the creation of the music on Men and Women? If so, explain.  I got regular sleep for the first time in well over a year due to roommate overhaul.  It released a torrent of positively kinetic energy.

Which song is your favorite and why? What's it about?  My favorite didn't make the album cause it hasn't been written yet.  It'll be the greatest song ever written in history.  Better than anything Lennon and McCartney or Liberace could produce on their best day.

When will the album be available in stores?  May 9th.  Mutha's Day.

What are your thoughts on overcoming incomplete paradigms in life?  A paradigm by nature is complete.  It's a simple signpost of change that has served it's purpose.
What are you dreaming up for the near future artistically?  Children.

What are you dreaming up for the near future personally?  Protection.

Domo Arigato Mister Obento

Well, I know I've been MIA lately, but you know how it is... The end of the school year, plus a bunch of other stuff going on in my home life and next thing you know the time flies by and I haven't written a thing!!

At least not here!
One of the things I'm working on is bit by bit piecing together my very first cookbook.  It will be a tribute to my family heritage, which mixes the cuisines and traditions of several cultures, and includes organically grown, (often homegrown) foods.
I'm having fun with the introductory outline which tells about my childhood memories of road trips to grandma's house fully equipped with picnic basket in tow and  my other grandmother's home garden which provided the vegetables for the entire family for most of each year. I know that the stories and recipes from this project will resonate with many of you.   Stay tunes for further updates on that project!
In the spring, I made the careful decision to terminate the Pyrate's public school attendance and homeschool him as of the fall this year.  I spent several weeks contemplating this decision, researching our options and the possible consequences.  Several disturbing events over the last two years brought enough alarm to my mind that in some ways I almost felt there is no other choice.  I worried about the social implications for the Pyrate, however, the social implications if he stays in the environment he has been in will no question be catastrophic.  Then two things happened.  We have found a fantastic virtual academy that will suit his needs as an individual, with teachers, personalized lessons, access to college courses in high school, and so much more that a kid like mine will shine thorugh like a super nova!  I can't wait.  I believe every child deserves to have this kind of opportunity.  I showed this program to my son, and he loves it, and can't wait to get started.  I started the enrollment process, had several conversations with families already doing this, and started collecting the proper documents... That was the second thing.  I had to retrieve documentation of the Pyrate's status for California's Gifted and Talented student program.   It's one thing to know you have a brilliant child.  It is quite another to hold in your hand documentation that measures said brilliance.  He's documented to have scored within the top 3 percentile FOR THE NATION all of the last three years in a row on standardized and specialized testing for skills and mastery in math, language arts, and science.  When we got this documentation the other day, we sat together staring at it as I explained it to him.  We sat staring at it silently.  I watched his eyes, wide and almost in disbelief.  I asked him what he was thinking.   "I'm thinking I can't wait to be out of regular public school, mom.  It's killing my reputation!"
So that was it.  I completed his enrollment and we're waiting for the curriculum to get here like kids wait for Christmas morning.  Meanwhile I'm getting myself accustomed to being the learning coach.  He'll have teachers online, but I still have to supervise and coach on the home front, plan his schedule, come up with creative ways to experience the world as it pertains to his studies.  This will be fun, so long as I properly prepare.  I'm taking the time to attend lectures and recorded speaker series on how to do all of this.
If you too are discouraged with trusting your child's education to a public system that is more damaging than it is productive, check out homeschooling.  It's not what it used to be.  You can still get certified to teach your own children if you like. But now there are virtual schools with experienced teachers who are excited, inspiring, creative, and give their students one on one attention.  There are virtual schools where most work is done online and the curriculum is more effective than what is available in public schools.  Virtual schools offer personalized instruction based on mastery.  That means if the Pyrate can pass a lesson's assessment, he can skip all of the lesson activities in that lesson and move to the next lesson.  He can accelerate in this way, to the next grade level mid year if applicable, and in high school can take classes that are worth college credit.  We can set his study schedule to fit his personal rhythm, and include outside experiences that enrich his learning in ways he would never get in regular public schools.  And here's the killer!  Most of these virtual academies are set up like charter schools, publicly funded, and free to those who are within the district that funds them.  Not only is it tuition free, they provide all curriculum materials, and loaner computers as well for free.  All you have to provide is an adult to supervise 5-6 hours a day, and regular school supplies such and notebooks and paper, etc.
A great example is the K12 program with academies nationwide.  Check it out for yourself.

The third thing I'm up to is fun, fun, fun!!  I'm learning about the art of Bento!  This is a traditional Japanese practice that involves artfully arranged meals packed in compact boxes that are usually transportable.  We are going to use the art of Obento (the respectful way to refer to the art) as a fun and entertaining way to institute healthy eating habits into our everyday life.  I've been educating myself and preparing to make it a part of our family's nutritional life.  You'll be finding recipes and photo records of this little gastro-artistic adventure posted here in my blog in the very near future.  Should you want to join me, I recommend these two blogs as reference material and  inspiration:  www.justbento.com  and  www.lunchinabox.net 

See you here again very soon when I've got my bento boxes, chopsticks and a couple of recipes under my belt... this stuff is no joke!!

A Movie in the Making...

Be a part of this very special project headed up by my friend, singer/songwriter/score composer/film director (yes, and so much more) Patsy Moore! *You'll need to scroll to the bottom of my blog page and turn off my music player there.*

A REAL FEEL-GOOD PIECE OF WORK from Patsy Moore on Vimeo.

Projects for Giving: Edible Gifts Finale!

We've got a few of these already packed gift boxes left, if you're local and would like to grab some up... let me know.  I'll let them go for $15 per box. 

Boxes purchased at www.nashvillwraps.com

A small booklet with recipes and suggestions for how to use the items included in the gift box.

I guess, my first cookbook.  Perhaps someday a collector's item??

 

Graphics by Andreas Adamec, thread bound paper bag books by Scrapbook Supply Outlet on ebay

 

Bubba's Rosemary Lemon Salt

(tins and jars in this posting purchased from www.specialtybottle.com , recycled paper tissue, and recycled paper ribbon all purchased at www.nashvillewraps.com )

BeeBee's Gourmet  Honey Mustard with Beer and Tarragon

The Pyrate's Ginger-Infused Honey

BeeBee's Gourmet  Honey Mustard with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Garlic


Christmas has passed now, and the new year is soon upon us!!  The Pyrate, the Austrian, and the Butterfly all wish you a happy New Year and all the best to you and yours!!!

Projects for Giving: Ginger-Infused Honey (How To Make)

 A jarful of Ginger-Infused Honey makes a yummy gift!

This infused honey recipe is part of our holiday gift projects for this year.  We also made gourmet mustards and rosemary lemon sea salt.   Preparation for all three project can be found here! 

We ordered our honey from a bee farm here in California.  We found it online by googling "bulk organic honey".   You can find links to the shops we ordered from in the post for preparations linked above.

This is another simple project that doesn't require rocket science skills nor do you have to be a professional chef to make this gourmet quality goody that your friends and loved ones will totally appreciate.  It can be used to sweeten teas, mixed with hot water alone and drank as a tea, added as the sweetener in a pound cake recipe, eaten on toast, used as a glaze for roasted meats, added to morrocan sauce recipes, added to tomato sauce for a yummy bbq sauce.  It's great by the spoonful as a sore throat soother too!!!  We bought three 1 gallon buckets of honey for $60 total.  Enough to make thirty-two 12 ounce jars of infused honey.  We bought organically grown ginger at our local farmers market.   In total I spent about $120 including the ginger, the honey, and the jars.   That's about $3.75/jar of infused honey.  A jar of  non-organic, ginger honey in the Korean market costs around $7 for 8oz jar.  

Again, it couldn't be simpler!!!   Buy your honey.  Buy your fresh ginger root.  You'll need about 3 inches of root for every 12 oz of honey you intend to make.

Peel the ginger, cut it into 1/2 inch pieces and mix into your honey.  Close the jar and don't open again for at least 1 week before opening to use.  Store in the refrigerator up to1 month after opening.

Projects for Giving: Rosemary Lemon Sea Salt (How To Make)

So easy to make, Rosemary Lemon Salt 

This is part of our holiday gift project series.  This year's theme is edible gifts.  We made gourmet mustard, rosemary lemon sea salt,   and ginger-infused honey.   You can find the post on how to prepare in advance for these three projects here.

You cannot find a more simple project than making rosemary salt.  Try to make this extra special by getting organic ingredients whenever possible.  We got our salt from a spice merchant online, for a fraction of what it would have cost to buy organic sea salt in the store.  Our ingredients cost under $35 to make 18 pounds of this delicious seasoning that can be used a myriad of ways!   I paid about $20 for small metal tins with hinged lids to hold my little treasures.  It would cost more than $500 to purchase that much gourmet salt at retail prices.  My 18 pounds makes about thirty-six 8 oz tins.  A 4 oz tin of gourmet salt costs anywhere from $8 and more in specialty shops and gourmet stores.   The lemons came from the farmer's market and the rosemary... *smiles* we harvested from our very own garden, from a bush I planted 4 years ago.  So the rosemary cost us nothing!  All you need is 2 parts regular grain organic sea salt to 1 part course granule organic sea salt, for each cup of salt, add 1/4 cup of fresh rosemary leaves, and 3 tablespoons of fresh grated lemon zest.

In a food processor grind your rosemary into a fine meal, then mix together with lemon zest and salt.

Spread the mixture thinly onto cookie sheets and dry in the oven for 2 hours on 140 degrees fahrenheit.   The zest and the rosemary should crumble between your fingers if it is properly dried.  Store your salt in a cool place indefinitely.  However, it will be most flavorful if used within 6 months. 

Projects for Giving: Gourmet Mustard How To Make

 

Honey Mustard with Garlic and Sun-dried Tomatoes,  Beer and Honey Mustard with Tarragon and Orange Zest

THIS JUST IN:  Gourmet foods don't require expensive ingredients, nor do they have to be imported from some far away land.  You don't have to buy them in Gelson's, Bristol Farms, or Whole Foods.  You don't have to go to your city's version of Beverly Hills and pay exorbitant prices in pretentious boutiques.  From my perspective, quality gourmet foods are made using preparation and cooking techniques that are time-honored, often old world, and often handmade in smaller quantities than mass manufactured foods.   Usually they are made with ingredients acquired with special care and usually the ingredients are organic, straight from the source, when possible locally grown to the maker of the food.  Guess what that means?   You can make your own gourmet foods fresh, organic, more intensely flavored and tasting like the ingredients instead of the machines and chemicals used in mass preparations.    

In our house we made homemade gourmet mustard, rosemary lemon salt, and ginger-infused honey to give as presents this holiday season.   See my previous post regarding preparations for these items here. 

In this post, I'll explain how we made two delicious mustards that I can't get enough of!! 

I will post photos of the actual packaging at a later date, along with the pages from the recipe book that will be included with the gifts when we give them.   We made everything ourselves at home from scratch with organic ingredients purchased from their source when possible, none of the ingredients were purchased in retail stores except the beer and even that was from a microbrewery.  The mustard powder and whole mustard seeds were bought online from a spice merchant.  The vinegar came from a source online as well that promised its product was organic.   The honey came from a bee farm I found online as well.  Purchasing ingredients in this way, from the source and in bulk was a cost savings that will blow you away.   

I made fifty 8 oz jars of mustard, including all the ingredients for under $75, including the cost of the jars which were bought online from a specialty bottle company.   In actual hands on preparation time, I may have spent a total of 2 hours total to make the mustard, over the course of two days.  First soaking the seeds, then the next day grinding them and mixing in the other ingredients.  After that, it is simply the passage of time that makes the flavors in the mustard come together over the course of about 10 days.

This mustard can be used for many purposes.... on sandwiches, in marinades, salad dressings, and so many more things... You will find that a jar of this as a gift is appreciated in a way that something impersonal, bought in a store will never be.   The flavor is so much finer... such mustard would fetch more than $10 a jar in a fine gourmet shop.  Making this was a pleasure.  The experience of tasting it was fine.  Somehow finer than if we'd bought it in a store.  The aroma perfumed my house for a few days until the mustard was sealed in jars.   I can't wait for you to make your own.  You don't have to make enough for 50 jars.  A jar will only keep for about 1 month in your refrigerator so, make what you'll use and then give the rest away.

You can be creative with the ingredients as well.  This is a simple thing, not really a recipe at all.  You will simply use equal parts mustard flour (mustard powder) and whole yellow or brown mustard seeds.  You'll need to soak your mustard seeds in the liquid of choice for at least a day or two before combining with the other ingredients.  We used apple cider vinegar and beer to soak one batch, and white wine and apple cider vinegar for the other. 

For 8 oz of mustard you will need 3 tablespoons of mustard seeds, 3 tablespoons of mustard flour, 3/4 cup of combined liquid (beer, water, vinegar, wine...), and any additional ingredients you want to use to create the flavor you desire.  If you decide to add honey to your mixture, subtract 1/3 of the other liquid, but don't add the honey to the soaking phase of the process.  Add it at the end when you add all the other ingredients before grinding.

After soaking the seeds for two days in the liquid, we added the mustard powder, and the other ingredients.  We added dried organic tarragon, organic honey,  and fresh grated orange zest to the beer mustard.  We added fresh finely minced garlic, honey, and sun-dried tomatoes to the other.  I decided to make the beer tarragon mustard a bit smoother and the garlic sun-dried tomato one more course.  To do this we varied the amount of the mixture that we put through the food processor to grind it smooth.  For the course one we processed 1/2 of the mixture in the processor for 5 minutes.   For the smoother one we processed 3/4 of the mixture in the processor for 10 minutes.   With gourmet mustard you want a bit of  whole seed to be present.   You can see from the closeups above, the difference in texture between the course ground and the smoother.  The courser will be spicier.   

It will taste better with time, so don't worry if the flavor is a bit harsh when you first taste it. Once you've gotten the consistency you like, store your mustard away for about 10 days then check the flavor.  At this point, taste it to see if you want to add more salt, more honey, etc... then store your mustard in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Enjoy!!!

Projects For Giving: Prep for Gourmet Mustard, Rosemary Salt, Ginger Honey Tea

Some of you have asked that I tell you what I'm doing for my holiday giving because you'd like to make along with us some of the things we'll be making.  So here's a brief summary of what we're doing.
I'm doing gourmet gift bags, filled with gourmet mustards, rosemary salt, Korean ginger honey tea, a recipe booklet, and other goodies to be determined... We'll be making around 50 of each item. Leftovers can be used by us, or given to people at other occasions such as a hostess gift when invited for dinner, or for no occasion at all, just to say "I love you!"
So we bought things in bulk.  Spices came from the Monterey Bay Spice Company.
We got our honey in 1 gallon containers from Miller's Honey.
You'll need jars.  I purchased my jars from the Specialty Bottle Co.  I used 8 oz jars for the mustard, 12 oz jars for the ginger honey tea, and I used 8 oz rectangular tins with clear hinged lids for the rosemary salt.

Then there's the packaging.  We've stopped using that cheesy, ink-laden holiday paper you can find in every drug store during this season, and opted for more eco friendly Andreas and I will make labels and tags for our items.  Some will be printed, some handwritten, on cardstock and attached with ribbon.  Other packaging will be recycled paper brown kraft wrapping paper, and recycled paper raffia ribbon that we got at Nashville Wraps.  This company carries a vast assortment of eco-friendly packaging and gift products.  I also get my reuseable green grocery bags here, 10 bags for about $6, and that's what i use instead of traditional gift bags. 

Everything you'll need (except for any fresh produce ingredients) can also be purchased in my Amazon Store.  Look for the section in my store that's titled Edible Giving.  I've set that up so that you can do one-stop shopping for everything you'll need.












Gourmet Mustard

Basically what we're doing is soaking mustard seeds for a day or so, then adding mustard paste made with the mustard powder (mustard flour) You'll get further instructions for this next week.  For now just collect your ingredients.
You will need to get some yellow or brown (depending on your preference) organic bulk mustard seeds and organic bulk mustard powder (mustard flour).
You'll also need to purchase whatever spices you want to add to it, and the day before you prepare this mustard, purchase whatever fresh herbs, horseradish, etc.  you'd like to mix in. 
If you want to make champagne mustard, you'll need to get some champagne vinegar.  Otherwise you'll need either cider vinegar, wine vinegar, or plain white vinegar.  About 1/4 cup for every cup of mustard you intend to have as end result.   If you want your mustard to be a brighter yellow you'll need a bit of turmeric as well.

Korean Ginger Honey Tea
You only need three things for this.  You need jars for however many you want to make, enough honey for however many jars you want to make, and the day before you're ready to make these, you'll need a generous amount of whole fresh ginger root.  Pretty darn simple.













Lemon Rosemary Salt

... if you thought things couldn't get any simpler, you'll need two things for this.   Lots of fresh organic rosemary, and sea salt.  You'll need both coarse and fine grain sea salts. 















That's pretty much it!!!
Check back in a few days when I've got all my ingredients ready and I'll have photos and instructions for how to make these gifts!

Giving a Tinker's Dam

 It's that time again.  The holidays are upon us and even though we should probably think about giving more frequently than just this once a year, it's a time to forgive yourself, revive the practice enthusiastically. 

If we go back to 1877, in the Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, Edward Knight puts forward this definition:

"Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."

This is a blog about worth and value in giving, but let me preface by saying that all of you out there who were planning on sending me an extravagant check in the mail as a holiday gift, I won't turn up my nose to it!  Don't you fret!!!  Just carry on with what you have planned!!! :)

In our house, over the last few months, I have quietly instituted a lifestyle evolution towards living a little cleaner, greener, and with more inner substance.  You won't find me doing any sort of massive conversion to some new extreme.  I am not interested in that.  There's something about extremes that just doesn't sit well with me.  I think if more people thought in terms of balance at the center of things,  instead of trying to right the boat by running frantically to the other end of the deck, the human race might even find a way to stay afloat.

So we've begun a whole slew of things... the Austrian is taking our master bath toilet apart this weekend because the water pressure in it hasn't been right in over a year, and we're wasting water with double flushes. (go ahead and breeze on by that mental image...) Long before the city ordained the new twice a week sprinkler allowance, we'd already cut back the watering of our garden and front lawn.   Last year, I stopped buying regular lightbulbs and started buying slightly more expensive, but longer lasting energy efficient bulbs.   We stopped using our air conditioning and heater except in cases where it was absolutely necessary...instead using ceiling fans, and alternately, extra blankets on the bed.   We stopped eating out so much, and the Austrian and I started visiting our local farmer's market every weekend.  I started reading labels on packaged foods, paying close attention to the ingredient hierarchy, and the ratio of the serving size to amounts of certain things like sugars, sodium, and saturated fats.  I've eliminated much of the prepared foods we were eating and replaced them with fresh foods prepared at home.  I don't even know why we were doing anything differently.  I am a hobby gourmet, and we were paying manufacturers to do things I can easily do at home, cheaper, tastier, and without a dramatic investment of time.  I eliminated the enormous amount of leftovers we were throwing in the trash due to our busy lifestyle, by purchasing disposable oven-safe, microwavable single serving containers and packing and freezing leftovers for the Austrian to take to work for his lunches.  The containers are made of recycled materials, and they are manufactured in a certified green factory and can be found in every Smart & Final store and most of those large outlets such as  Sam's Club and Costco.  I've had two yard sales this year, and gave away about 200 pounds of clothing to Goodwill.  We overhauled a small area in our home that was completely disfunctional and largely useless and turned it into a craft supply storage area... reducing the amount of clutter in my life by about 40%!
 

One of the greatest successes in the last year, (beside our eco-friendly self-produced wedding), was our christmas gift project.  I am being VERY generous when I use the word "our".   The boys were not really fully on board until the last weekend of production.

It might have been asking a bit much to get the Austrian, who I suspect to have borderline OCD, and the Pyrate who is probably sick of me and my big ideas, no matter how much he patronizes them.

But this stuff was not going to make itself!  We were on a tight budget, with wedding and trip to Mexico coming up in a few months, so we needed to use our creative resources and give in a very different way.

Once the guys got into it, they were very helpful and we were all very proud of what we'd done.  I spent 3 full weekends basically doing nothing but making the components of our christmas presents. We made several different things.The idea was to give things made with our own hands which had to be in some way useful.   We did some really cool stuff!
We made glass magnets decoupaged with art.

We decoupaged glass vases, framed mirrors, decorative platters, lazy susans, cigar boxes, and more.  I decoupaged wooden blocks and made block puzzles from images out of art magazines.  Grown-ups like to have them on the coffee table to fiddle with, and kids... well they love that there's 6 different images to puzzle together.


I made a beautiful jerk seasoning mix and layered the ingredients in the jar like a sand sculpture.  We made a seaweed mint footscrub, an oatmeal lavender milk bath, and little cones of individual cocoa mix and marshmallows.   Andreas designed customized labels for everything so that our gifts had a nice theme.

I purchased reusable grocery bags  and kraft paper (brown paper bag paper) for wrapping, from Nashville Wraps, an online company that sells gift packaging, including a huge and varied assortment of eco-friendly, recycled, re-useable products. 

We made our gifts, wrapped them in brown kraft paper, packed them in brown unbleached tissue paper, in reuseable grocery bags, and I can't remember the last time any gift I've given received such a response of gratefulness. 

NEWSFLASH:
People really like it when you do something thoughtful and actually give more than a tinker's dam instead of just going through the motions.  People actually get it when you've reached inside yourself and used your inner gifts for benevolence.

At a time when we probably should all be thinking more about how we spend our money... a time when we should be more conscious about how we consume... a time when we should be practicing less waste and more sustainable ways of living... getting creative in the way you give to others is the obvious move.  Not only is the gift more meaningful to the recipient, it is also profoundly good for your own mental, emotional, and yes, even physical health, to create and give.

So if you're a fantastic writer, write a short story and find self publisher online to print it, and give it as a gift.  If you're an artist, paint something and have copies printed, frame it and wrap it up in a bow.  You might think you're not very handy, or that you don't have the time, but those are excuses.  Giving is not giving if you don't get up off of something and give it.  Everybody has a talent for something.  If you're a handy household do-it-yourself-er, print up your favorite home improvement advice and anecdotes on nice paper, bound in a creative way and give it to all the homeowners in your life.  

If you write poetry, tell good jokes, bake great cakes, or even have great taste in music, there's super ways you can capitalize on your talent and use it for giving.   Frame a beautiful poem printed on parchment,  in an old frame and sign and number it.   Write a mini joke book.  Make a cake mix with all the dry ingredients for your most loved cake recipe and pack it up in a cellophane bag with instructions for what wet ingredients to add and how to bake it.   Make a list of must-have music and print it on card stock decorated with holiday regalia, add a personal note with holiday wishes and give it as a greeting card.
There are all kinds of great books out there if you want to try your hands at crafts.  You should, keep an open mind, don't start out too ambitious, don't get in over your head with something that will take months to finish.  And if you have many gifts to plan, don't choose something that you can't create in multiple fairly quickly.   

This year, we're going to step it up a notch with the edible goods, since I'm writing about food in my blogs.  I'm not completely committed yet to what all the goods will be, but there will be some sort of recipe booklet type inclusion, that, perhaps, I'll make available for sale after the holidays are over.

If you really feel that you just cannot create something, but you have a generous heart, that in itself is a talent!  Gather up some of  your friends and loved ones and plan a trip to your local rescue mission to serve a meal or deliver some cheer to children's ward at your local hospital.  Take books to read them, and boardgames to play.  This will be appreciated greatly by the staff and the patients alike!

You can find some really great books on crafting in my bookshelf in the right margin of the blog page.  All the books there are ones I have in my library and recommend!  So have fun, and remember to give from the heart!!!

All photos in this blog are taken by me, of items made by me, using recycled and re-purposed materials and cost very little money to make, but 3 weekends of my time, and a lot of love! 

Etsy-Cool! Shopping Etsy

handblown vase on Etsy.com

One of my recurring craft fantasies is that I will get it together enough to actually produce enough original craft items to sell them.   Recipients of my craft items tell me all the time... "You should be selling these."

They don't understand... a lot of heart goes into the one piece.  I don't know if I could put that much heart into duplicates of the same piece.  So I do something different every year.  This summer when we got back from wedding/honeymoon and settled back into home life, I discovered that I had so much arts and crafts paraphernalia that I needed an official craft storage area to organize it all.  I had a lot of stuff before the wedding, but after?  I had arts and crafts stuff all over the place!  It was swallowing me up.  So we dedicated an area downstairs in our house.  Tore out existing cabinetry, and spent a couple hundred dollars at Ikea to purchase a closet organizing system of shelves, drawers, pull-out baskets, and more.  I now officially have a craft supply storage area!!!  Woo-hoo!!

Perhaps this will help me to focus long enough to create at least some limited edition collections of items that I can sell.

Meanwhile, I know it's not the be-all-to-end-all, but I'm admiring the artisans on the wonderful website Etsy where people like me... (well, perhaps people a little more organized than I)... sell their artistic creations.

stained glass nightlight

Etsy is a fabulous place to look for one-of-a-kind gifts of all kinds.  I've bought everything from gold jewelry to custom-made stationary.  They've even got artists and crafters from all over the world who re-purpose, recycle, re-use to their hearts desire.   The art of re-purposing is a hot arena these days with being "green" or more eco-conscious is the popular trend of our times.

 sushi usb flash drive 2 GB

For our wedding, I made crepe paper flowers, inspired by ones I found for sale on Etsy.  I bought victorian style wrist cuffs to give my bridesmaids.  I've bought handmade hats to give as christmas presents, and there's so much more!!!  Pottery, Gothic fashion, unique holiday decorations, custom formal wear, office accessories, linens, custom period costumes, custom electronic accessories!  You name it you'll find it on Etsy.

leather macbook case

Yes, perhaps someday soon, I'll get it together, y'all... But where to start???

 

Rosie O'Donnell's custom Munny Sculptures!

What's really cool is that the prices are usually very reasonable since you are buying from the person who created the item you are purchasing.  This is great because you get great customer service from most vendors, and a much more personal story behind the items you purchase.  I love objects with a story.  Here are some of my favorite Etsy products for this week:

my friend in alaska makes these hand knit crowns...

wooden iPod case

custom made in YOUR size

blossom lace earrings

made-to-order iPod docking station

100% cotton handmade baby beanie

handmade picture frame