Recycling. Upscaling. Crafts: Mentors & Selling.

Hi Everyone! A reminder and an apology: this blog of mine is STILL under construction! Just like me and a lot of my other projects...

My mission in this blog is centered around the fact that I and my extended family are totally committed recycle freaks combining our recycling habits and our craft skills to make pretty stuff to sell.




Recycling is fun. Crafting is fun. And selling is fun. But the truth is, if I had all the money that ever was, I would use it to support all the projects of eco-friendly, fair trade, sustainable community minded people around the world. I would start with supporting all genres of arts that promote health and healing, human rights, sustainability and of course PEACE. I would move on to rebuild all the eco-unfriendly buildings in the world making sure that they were rebuilt using the highest fair labor practices and sustainable materials. I would see to it that they were furnished with mindful and heart-felt objects of beauty, practicality and love. You can read part one of my personal story as a woman, renegade artist and business woman of integrity on my upcoming blog.

My fervent belief is that we industrialized nations need to find ways to show others that we all can be just as prosperous, make just as much money by doing things the ecological way, the sustainable way, the life-enriching way as we can by breaking down the earth and all it's resources.

So far in my life I have made my income as a photographer, a clothing designer and a painter. I have traveled, bought houses and built one house on my profits as an artist and wholesaler. Now I want to switch over to rescuing beautiful or freaky clothing items made preferably of natural materials and redesigning them through deconstructing, reconstructing and embellishing them with paint, jewelry or junk....

I have spent the last 4 years living in two Artist Residency programs in Tenino, Washington and in Tacoma, Washington (in my 30 foot RV surrounded by 70 acres of wetlands and blackberry bushes, coyotes, partridges, pear trees, rabbits, feral cats, song birds, a scraggly organic garden and huge motherly Douglas Fir trees. It is an awesome piece (peace) of heaven for me.

My specific task as a member of the female species is to help single mothers to stay at home with their young children and get out into the real world a bit as well. Children need to see their mothers interacting with the business world. I teach the "ready, willing and eager" women around me how to augment their incomes through upgrading their art and craft skills and learning how to wholesale to gift shops or through the internet.

All proceeds from whatever I sell have always gone towards helping myself to help others. I'm all about win-win living ... and artists and craftswomen need to do a lot more winning! We have so much value to offer the world and we who are conscientious and frugal deserve a much bigger piece of the pie than what we have been traditionally getting!

Did I say pie? Just incidentally I have a fantastic chocolate pie recipe, you won't believe it till you try it! Black chocolate, avacado, black beans bananas and apples. Yummy. See ya later with that recipe, I promice you'll love it! (Or mail it to me if you don't!)

Organic question of the month.

We are blessed with the largest gardens imaginable and we don’t use them to anything near their true capacity. Scrubbing the ocean clean of toxins, producing over 90% of our oxygen, and with uses ranging from foods to fuels to medications, xxxxxxxxx plants are a truly untapped resource. What are the common names of the plants are we talking about here? Correct answer worth 5 points.

"Sulfured molasses is made from young green sugar cane and is treated with sulfur dioxide, which acts as a preservative, during the sugar extraction process. Unsulfured molasses is made from mature sugar cane and does not require treatment with sulfur during the extraction process. There are three grades of molasses, Mild or first molasses, Dark or second molasses, and Black strap. These grades may be sulfured or unsulfured.

To make molasses, which is pure sugar cane juice, the sugar cane plant is harvested and stripped of its leaves. Its juice is extracted from the canes, usually by crushing or mashing. The juice is boiled to concentrate which promotes the crystallization of the sugar. The results of this first boiling and removal of sugar crystal is first molasses, which has the highest sugar content because comparatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice. Second molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slight bitter tinge to its taste.

The third boiling of the sugar syrup gives black strap molasses. The majority of sucrose from the original juice has been crystallized but black strap molasses is still mostly sugar by calories; however, unlike refined sugars, it contains significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Black strap molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. One tablespoon provides up to 20 percent of the daily value of each of those nutrients. Black strap is often sold as a health supplement, as well as being used in the manufacture of cattle feed, and for other industrial uses.


It's not only what you've got that count; it's how you use it.

This is my dear sweet neighbor when I lived on St. Kitts, W. I. Sarah Hodge age 14. Never had a doll to play with. Always caring for baby brothers and sisters. Pregnant by the neighbor boy at age 13. Abandoned by the neighbor boy long before their baby arrived. Every Thursday is "Well baby clinic day." It's the only organized, free social activity on the island besides church. Every girl needs to have a baby so she can enjoy the camaraderie of other girls once a week, otherwise she works all day at home with mother, grandmother and young siblings and takes care of them with no relief in sight. Having her own baby gives her advantages like not always having to take care of the other family members who don't have to behave well for her. It's an interesting culture.




"Sulfured molasses is made from young green sugar cane and is treated with sulfur dioxide, which acts as a preservative, during the sugar extraction process. Unsulfured molasses is made from mature sugar cane and does not require treatment with sulfur during the extraction process. There are three grades of molasses, Mild or first molasses, Dark or second molasses, and Black strap. These grades may be sulfured or unsulfured.

To make molasses, which is pure sugar cane juice, the sugar cane plant is harvested and stripped of its leaves. Its juice is extracted from the canes, usually by crushing or mashing. The juice is boiled to concentrate which promotes the crystallization of the sugar. The results of this first boiling and removal of sugar crystal is first molasses, which has the highest sugar content because comparatively little sugar has been extracted from the juice. Second molasses is created from a second boiling and sugar extraction, and has a slight bitter tinge to its taste.

The third boiling of the sugar syrup gives black strap molasses. The majority of sucrose from the original juice has been crystallized but black strap molasses is still mostly sugar by calories; however, unlike refined sugars, it contains significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Black strap molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. One tablespoon provides up to 20 percent of the daily value of each of those nutrients. Black strap is often sold as a health supplement, as well as being used in the manufacture of cattle feed, and for other industrial uses.

Check out this saucy little 1950's wool hat. Brushed so nice. It is truly a spotless work of art. And I am going to feature it on Etsy one of these days! Price about $25.00. Don't you think that's fair enough? I also love my shiny hair. That's not going to be for sale, however, unless

of course you beg me and I feel compassion for you! Love is all there is, besides a bright blue $25.00 hat.

And now here is a real winner also to be featured on Etsy. A beautiful fur strip and spun wool macramé scarf approx 60 inches long. Unbelievably beautiful. For my tates it is flawless. But I will advertise it as fair condition so I won't get any bad marks on my report card from someone who buys it.
Here it is again, keeping my precious chilly little neck warm. Note again the shiny hair!
This is sooo cooool. Black thread crochet chapeau. Wear it several ways. Front to back, back to front. Another snazzy work of heart; and art. Going to price it at $45.00, but I do hate t'sell it!
Do I keep all my hats slung over lamp shades? Well, no. Some of them I sling over plant stakes in the garden. Note my Pendleton wool Ranger's hat. Another soon to be Etsy feature.

My dearly beloved White Bison, I actually found along the road side and took him home and washed him up and did a photoshop tribute to him. My friend in Eatonvill, Wa bought an old church publishing house and is turning it into a Sobaini Meditation Center. This is a pair of seekers who showed up to help with construction. It was just after a horrible storm when the power went out from Seattle to Olympia, Wa for almost 3 days. We were fortunate not to be on the "grid". Just had trouble finding a gas station where the pumps worked!
I would so love to have a flock of geese like these. This one belongs to a friend in Auburn, Wa
This very old little red cabbage proves to me that vegetables are living foods even long after they have been forgotten. This little cutie was doing it's thing in my root cellar.