differences between women and men.

i am way too busy. perhaps too busy is inaccurate. i like surfing the web and fiddling with my jewelry ideas. loads of stuff is out there to poke my nose into. gosh, there is so much that i want to know about....

how could i make stuff that i don't use or need?

OR what technique is used as it goes together?

OR what it could taste like?

OR can i find that pair of shoes i had in high school that i have always wanted to re-buy?

there are just too many things i want to find or find out about.

still i need to function ... i have a family. they require time and attention. they are very vocal if not cared for in the style that they feel is due. needless to say, my needs fall by the wayside often. this is perhaps timely and part of everyone else's agenda since appropriate stages of life have been arrived at.

my family is now composed of 3 teenaged people, a very sweet dog and a husband. one might think that it was ok, (much less stressful) here now that one child is at college. this makes it two of the kids against two of the adults. the ZONE defense as some call it. the dog's loyalty will be tested easily, as he will go to anyone with a dog cookie. if no cookies are available... he generally comes my way. just the way i like it. it continues to keep the idea that i am in charge on everyone's mind.

it is all a lie.

don't be fooled by this.

my husband is like a geriatric and a teenager at the same time. it is a misery. he is cranky a lot... and i know why. he thinks i am supposed to fill the gas tank for my car. let me assure you, i am not going anywhere ever. i travel now to pick kids up from school or get groceries or stuff at the pharmacy. these are all very local. he uses the car to travel to the hockey rinks that he is playing at or to ones where one/both of the kids is/are playing at. if i am not doing the driving, i don't feel as if i ought to be replacing all of the gas (it is a hair away from $4.00/gallon now... by summer it is expected to be $5/gal. YIKES!!!).

yet, last week, i replaced it four times. granted i did not put much in each time, but that is irrelevant.its value kept de-escalating daily. also, i did not travel an hour to skate. really, i am so mundane. i just pick kids up to bring home or to feed them. it is constant that feeding too. so i am a manageress of ridiculous need in the form of human or automotive fuel.

when asked about why husband doesn't replace the gas in my car that i am not using, he says, he puts $30 a day in his guzzlebeast truck. seriously? if you are willing to pay for your work transpo, why not your leisure too? generally, my car is better on the mileage, so it is preferred as the higher use vehicle. if i can use the truck for my minor needs when they arise, i am ok.

it sure would be a slap if i am being just too entitled about all of this.

i fear that not replacing off-season hockey travel fuel is considered a horrible household crime. this seems to mimic a cliched life with a highly inconsiderate teen . one who went joy-riding and brought home a dented car with no gas. the kind of kid who ruins it for all the other responsible parent-fearing, consequence-acknowleging teens in the world. one who gives all those responsible teens out there a bad name.

now i realize i am speaking harshly, but i have been to the food market three times this week and feel another trip coming on again tomorrow to ready myself for the Spring holiday season. you know, where family and friends gather round to revisit the sins against mankind and to hopefully put the natural/man-made elements to rest(take that! rotten tornadoes and tsunamis and nuclear plant meltdowns...). well there are vermin and loads of things i could do without ever again(vermin top that list btw). seemingly,my address rests in a locust heartland.

not a day goes by when a huge bag of pretzels or chips is not mowed down, a tub of hummus disappears as if a straw was inserted and its very presence was eradicated magically. no way can a chicken feed us as well as it once did. ( i am relegated to the wings since the upper two teens eat only white meat, and the lower two teens snarfle the dark meaty thighs and drumsticks). everyone has their part to content their tummies with.

it is ok... all of this is just part of living with hungry people. again, i can rally and deal with this.

what i really object to is that there are such different ways for folks to express themselves.it sure would be swell if i could do it without offending anyone. truly, i am not saying anything to be mean here, but i do find that the issues i am offended by most, align themselves along a gender bias.

i cut my hair this week.

i cut about 5-6 inches of it off the bottom. i did it in the bathroom and cleared up all the hairy remains. it never looked like i was over the sink trimming fuzzy bits away. it shocks me that my little girl noticed within 5 minutes of seeing me. (she had spent the night sleeping over at a friend's house). when i went to reclaim her, she asked what i had done and where. needless to say, she knows what a homebody i am and how unlikely it may be for me to make a hairdresser's appointment. i have a hard enough time getting to a doctor's office and let's not even start mentioning the dentist. i am likely to take the boy to the dentist's three times in a week, every 6 months. yet i cannot get to my own needs as efficiently.

and so it goes again. full circle. back to my needs... and my failing to meet them properly.

now the reason i started on this whine-a-thon, was that after two days of my wearing my hair down, neither the boy nor his father, the fist shaking antique with gas guzzling issues have noticed that i cut my hair.

the boy goes to get his own fuzziness managed every 14-21 days. he is relentless about its maintenance and his own 'look'. the hubby has only 3 hairs like homer simpson... and needs those gorgeous flowing locks to be snipped every month and a half or so. why is it that they are so persnickety about how they look to the ladies (using my low sexy mocking tone here ala "chef "from "south park" aka Isaac Hayes). i have recently felt more affinity with a footstool than the source and vessel of life that i really have been. when are they gonna look up and notice that i am sitting here, waiting to get free of the hope that they will glance my way and NOTICE my slight, yet diabolically important change? i got my hair cut for the first time in over three years.

keeping a low profile with this crowd is a lot more work than i ever thought it might be. at least since it is a zone defense, my younger daughter has my back. we are bonding over the fact that pere et fils are numb.

my eyes are crossing with fatigue and hopelessness. the siege may continue another day. i guess i should prep myself for it.

bring on the familial locusts and the men with blinders on. i sure will survive their ignorance cause there will be freshly HOME- baked flourless almond chocolate cake and mixed macaroons in the house.

{thinking along the lines of lemon, almond and chocolate this year!}

take that men of my house!!!

nighty night.

xoxox.

W.

Rhode Island employment stats

the best piece of business advice i ever heard, is that you should surround yourself with folks that are better at what you do, than you do yourself. it makes a lot of sense. unfortunately, i am a sole employer/employee for my business. there are many days that i wish i could hire anyone else or fire my lazy bottom.

last summer, i tried to hire my daughter#1. she is funny, hard working and highly creative. unfortunately, most of what i need to do is both tedious, unimaginative and speculative. she spent hours last summer using a scalloped edged cutting punch. she cut hundreds of heavy weight paper business cards for me. it kind of messed up her hands, since she has delicate fingers. it seemed so unfair to use her in this deeply flawed way. i knew i needed her to help, but the work was crummy. she also helped me design some bracelets for an upcoming show. while these were very fun to make, they were made on spec. the show was in a fantastic location, but supported more lookers, than buyers. she attached loads of price tags to things too, which i find a thankless task most of the time. she NEVER complained. i sure would have. the reason i had her working on all of this was that i was sure there would be tons of money at the end of the day, that would be applied to her college tuition bill. i broke even. there wasn't much of anything left to pay her from except experience.

this year all i want her to do some drawings of the very fun characters she sees in her head. i want to try to convert them to blank note cards and maybe some stationery sets. i know i will have to nag or beg or wheedle or apply some other extreme pressure somehow to get her cleverness out into the world. she is a little reticent to go with yet another of my harebrained schemes. you never know who is watching or whether it is just the perfect time and place for this kind of thing, so we gotta try it out.

my son likes to make stuff too. he is the one who can look at my show tent and erect it flawlessly, without having set one up ever before. he is a mechanical genius.(as a young boy, he took his pocket knife out of hiding to perforate a liter plastic bottle. he added some string, duct tape, some fallen tree limbs and a garden hose. from these things, he made a tripod out of the fallen tree limbs, attached the hose to the plastic bottle and hung it over the tall tripod. when he turned the water on, he had a great sprinkler for the yard and running under on hot days... who would have thought of that? SURELY not i).

Nowadays,i fear doing a show without him nearby to help. sending him to college in september may be my most inconvenient choice to live with ever. he is also a great help at breaking the whole end of show mess down during the selling phase, he can charm just about any female into a pair of earrings or a nice necklace. i am amazed that growing up with sisters had done so much good for his abilities to understand women.

the clean up period however, for which i am not really concsious is where he shines. he can break things down and repack the truck. the first time he did this i was hugely suspicious. he is not an organized fellow who puts things away in his own bedroom, however he can haul my junk in no time at all,pack it up and unpack it when we get home. i am usually spent and working from a deep menu of no sleep at this time and this is my ideal, someone else doing it all. it is a really good payable skill set... his niche is essential. i would pass out otherwise.

the little one, makes stuff. i have to keep crushing her dreams. she likes nice findings,beads and old pretty things. JUST LIKE I DO. this makes her sharing my stashes a dangerous thing. she makes earrings and other jewelry. she constructs everything almost as well as my peers and i do. its hard to compete with that. maybe i can get her to harness some fresh and fun designs. she loves candy as a payment resource more than virtually any other currency that i can pay her in. this makes it all good. also she is prone to sharing which is a swell byproduct.

husband just shakes his hand at the winds and sidestand kibbitzes.

who needs a professionl kibbitzer? especially when stressed out to the max? i am pretty sure it just ain't me.

last night i wrote on for many more paragraphs and lovely photos of flowered goodness were included. i went to edit some of the little grammatical glitches and the whole posting went away with the winds.

i cussed and paced and gritted my teeth. needless to say, since i am adding this part, i will have to resurrect that portion of my post at a later moment. and for this i apologize heartily. it is unfair of me to rely on technology and machinery to keep all my thoughts in stasis, while i review them for clunky,misspelled , inapropriate structure or mislabeled photos. yet somehow i have done it handily. guess i need to get more with my own program. perhaps again, i am looking for the chance to fire myself from writing these posts? sure hope not.

til tomorrow or later tonight.

i bid you adieu!

xoxo.

W.

Coffee anyone?

never in my life, did i think i would become a coffee appreciator. it sorta snuck up on me. i started to drink it in college from the big urns in the dining rooms. it was a surprise that it was soooo good especially with a ton of milk and some sugar. of course i had a lot of reasons to be full of caffeine in those days. starting with studying and ending with a quirky social life. as life has changed, i have held with it since. really i love it. if i could marry it and have chicklets with it, i would.

for many years, i was extraordinarily pampered in my coffee habits. i would drive my eldest to her school, with the dog in the back seat. drop the girl off, sneak down the hill to starbucks and then in my delirious-venti-whole- milk-with-raw-sugar-fog, head over to the dog park. it was the best part of my day. since then, the school changed twice in two years, the dog now takes most of his exercise on a leash or a nearer park and i make my personal elixir at home.

MMMMMM.

i do miss that my friendly baristas used to see the nose of my car nudge into the parking lot. they would magically heat my milk for me while i was on line(even ahead of other customers). i got my coffee order and cup all filled by the time i got to the registers. i was soooo pampered and knew it. i think it is the only spot i got some rodney dangerfield style RESPECT. in spite of the many changes over the past couple of years, i love that the dog doesn't test my good will in the mornings. i no longer witness arguments for a parking space or experience the thrill of a quick conversation with an old pal. i guess it is all about the sense of things balancing themselves out.

years ago, my husband's father went to his doc's office. he was not feeling well. this is a huge long story featuring horrors and multiple familial slights. so i will skip through all that for my current purposes. his dad had a massive lump thing , the size of a grapefruit, in his colon. this combined with plentiful other health issues shook my hubby up.

the end result is that now 'hubby dearest' is very responsible about all of his medical issues. the potential, imaginary and the real ones. he has been a card carrying sport about having his biennial colonoscopy. he makes sure he schedules tests, does all kinds of appropriate prep and unlike me, shows up for them.

it is not always fun to get ready for these things either. the first time was the worst for him. ( its no picnic to watch him get ready).

his response after his first event was that," now that he had a perfectly clean colon, he would never touch coffee again!".

so... i laughed.

no other good response was available. he swore he had a clean colon... he was sitting at a computer... he was wearing his clogs and half glasses... and he was drinking tea. i really and truly had to laugh. he was so smug about his new way of looking at things.

i told him that in his newly cleaned up and folksy looking persona, he was more likely than ever to pick up a kitty to make his petly companion. (it bears a little mention that the man hates cats).

years later,i still laugh at his self righteousness about his TEA-ONLY policy.

each summer the old 'dh' hits the campgrounds of New Hampshire. he takes our kids with him to go fishing, biking, canoeing, sleeping on mattresses in tents(quel weenie) and other fun things. I always take pre-trip photos in case i need to have a state trooper look for them.

he always wants to know why i won't go. i tell him that living in our house with the inordinate number of things that go wrong, is as close to camping as any thing i could do in NH.

i am pretty sure that i would wind up cooking all the time if i went. this seems virtually the same as being at home with but a lot more inconvenient.

i think he completely understands how i feel after his uninterrupted week with the kids for the 4th year running (2010). not that they are naughty or anything, it just is constant. nothing seems to stop. they talk about the smallest things and share every nuance ad nauseum (my brain is exhausted by this). then they forget and start the loop all over again. it pre-empts my own ability to process thinking.

while they are away, i spend the week in utter indescribably, heavenly joy. playing with the dog. getting take out coffee AND food. there's even gas in my gas tank when i want to go somewhere. i totally love working on my stuff without cleaning up in between projects. i love sleeping under the air conditioner. i even go to the pool and go swimming. i am the envy of all of my friends.

in fairness, i think the trip is only 6 days, but it is so relaxing, it feels like 7 to me. i start planning mid-april for this event. really, it is such a great time, its not that i don't miss them, but i don't too much. seriously, do you think anyone truly envies me in real life?

i don't, but this week is a great gift.

when the magic is over and the red truck pulls up to the curb ,,, the kids are the first ones to rat out daddy. i count on it too. my youngest mentioned that daddy bought himself a cigar last year. i was pissed but since i had no idea, it didn't really matter. if he wants to smoke some stinky bad cigar in his post apocalyptic age ( after he had his heart attack and a stent inserted...), i have no way to express my concern for him ( yell at him). he knows it is wrong and it makes him feel icky (which serves him right). it will all work out in the long run ... karma right?

last time the kids returned from NH camping, they told me that daddy was sneaking some coffee. well knock me over with a feather ... so much for the fallen.

shortly after this vacation dalliance with a cup or two... a small jar of instant coffee made its way on my kitchen counter. surely as the sun rises and sets, the jars of instant coffee got larger as did the cups of coffee. they appeared more regularly too. then it became an every day event. i can't tell you how many times i offered to make the ole fellow a good cup of coffee in whatever style he wanted. always ,he said no. i am not a fan of rejection. it is my very dear companion. i grow with it. but to reject a cup of coffee seems so silly.

about a week ago, he accepted my offer of a nice cup of home brew. then he did again the next day. then he took my french press, chrome pot out of my cabinet to use it. Never cleaned it.

of course, this MADE me NUTS!

if you are gonna use my equipment, you better not use the one piece that is the top of the line and requires careful hand washing to maintain it. he very rarely does dishes unless he can include casualties in that effort. i do not like him trying out his skills with an expensive replacement glass insert. so here we are.... he is fully addicted again. he knows what a good cup of home made coffee can taste like. he is now as rangy about finding his caff in the morning as i am walking around the house in search of any scrap of chocolate.

tonight as i was doing the dishes, i went to hide my favorite green cup in the back row of the dishwasher. i do it, cause i know the cup nearest the front of the dishwasher is the one that will be used first. now bear in mind it is a rarity that he puts anything into the dishwasher. again, you could have toppled me with that special feather all over again. i found a small, one cup coffee press in the back of the rack.

OH MY GOD.

it has all gone full circk. who ever saw that coming?

surely it was not me.

at least he will not be invading my turf too much. he has some huuuuge bag of beans in the freezer. HE bought it at the JOB LOT. we have two electric coffee bean grinders too.

i am gonna be laughing my butt off this week. and then i am going to get him a really nice thermal carafe style french press pot.

FATHER'S DAY IS COMIN'

for all the crap i whine about, i never have had to fix a thing on one of my cars in 28 yrs. nor have i had to cut a piece of wood, call a plumber or have one of my wild color choices rejected for our painted interiors.

we shall see what tomorrow's fresh ritual offers... i have my fingers crossed.

please join in and wish for luck as the coffee wars start up...

he already is prone to not refilling my gas tank, he better not mess with my coffee pot and beans.

let me wish you a happy night night folks....

all this thinking about the coffee is making me want some. so i best go to sleep early to capitalize on getting a great cup of my friend in the morning.

see you soon . . .

xoxo.

w.

outside and loving every minute of it

i spent the day with my cousins today. it had a lot of grief management going on. there were plenty of other emotions holding court as well. the deepest problem was seeing my relatives so discombobulated. the person that died was my first cousin, once removed. this means in more specific terms, that my mother's mother's sister's son was the person who had died.

in my family, there are a lot of males. my grandmother had a son and daughter.one of her sisters had no kids. the other was the mother to three boys. between these 3 sons, 7 more boys were built.

i was, as my mother is,the only female of our generation. this is only remarkable in that the relationships between men are different than those between men who have been raised with girls. i feel like we females are the wolves in the relationships that evolve.

i saw my cousin (of my familial generation) who is now a young man, literally half my age weeping copiously. i used to babysit for him. well i was completely and utterly unprepared for the level of grief he expressed. to see someone you love in that much pain is really difficult.

it is also remarkable that the memorial service was very loosely constructed. no one of us knew where we were going to release some ashes into the wilds of a natural water feature in MA. it was all free form in its organization. i have no idea why, but it was pretty disconcerting. everyone had feelings about the memorial and the incompleteness of the plan added to the rising sense of discomfort we all shared. everyone expressed things so very differently. again, the all male sibling relationships which are so very difficult for me to understand on a good day, well they left me feeling hugely unsettled.

perhaps it is a feature of all the stuff we process while dealing with death or else it is a series of micro emotional peaks and valleys that we are to contend with. i don't know.

i feel like i have a wicked and weird hangover.

this has left me with a huge thirst for some more attractive visuals as i wander through my night time rituals.

in this, i am equally exhausted by looking through blogs of other designers and some truly gifted writers.

they are witty, charming and productive as a group. some of the to-do lists that they power through make me feel like i have been in a coma.

i live in a chaotically organized place. it is of my own making. now i feel that i have a way to face spring which seemingly has made its grand entrance this week. i feel like some purposeful redecorating should be in the mix... and in a big way. i am sure i will be soon purchasing some huge inexpensive bundles of foam paint brushes. along with a nifty, large white canvas drop-cloths to renovate and slipcover my living room. it is an itch of reverse nesting that i think is overdue. the reverse sensation is that two of my kids will be readying for college. one for a freshman year and the elder for her sophmore year.

in this wild new phase, personal industriousness will be obliged to partner with ideas about how i live in my life shell. i will post any ideas, pics(before and afters) that are good to share with you. i think some cheeriness is overdue. as well as a good dose of organizing, throwing crap out, and cleaning up.

as i move forward thinking of losses, pain and generally a rough year, i plan to carefully slap some paint on some furniture and repurpose as if my life depended upon it. perhaps it does?

anyways,

thanks for listening...

here is an inspirational group of painted items. just to whet my appetite and yours too i hope.

kkk

i love how bright and how purposeful they are.

i want to see some improvement here by my own hands!

i have a victim,

i mean i have selected a nice first candidate for this exciting program

of RENEWAL!

This red desk is so sweet and to me seems so SCANDINAVIAN .

it is Cheery against all possible odds with a capital pom-pom toting Cheerful!

OK, i am out and loving every minute of it.

PINK!!!!

seriously, i do not have enough pink in my life these days.

NEED ME SOME

PINK.

and you know what will be playing on my ipod?

PINK!

temporarily, this is one of my favorites.

i would hate to tell one of my kids that they are my favorite.

i do it all the time.

i whisper it in each of their ears.

they are all my favorites.

and they know it.

so what if they are in therapy forever?

they all share how much i love them.

and i do love this chest with the fantastic wallpaper

serving as a backdrop.

not to mention how MUCH i am grooving on the

cleanery of the cloches.

of course, i think i would have a big bowl of jellybeans

under one of my cloches, if i had some.

Credits for photos... i think that i swiped all of them from the fantastic blog:

http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com

surfing on the internet... shoes found.

surfing the internet... generally, what a joy!

i can find all sorts of cool things.

often i am tempted to borrow photos,

and i always try to publish the credits for those images if i can.

sometimes, it is just not possible.

sometimes there is no info for the pics to let the world know where i got them from.

this evening,

i was following the hugely talented jenny doh's facebook posting.

http://blog.crescendoh.com/crescendo/2011/04/art-of-shoemaking.html

it featured a class that she took.

of course i needed to follow those bread crumbs...

it was a class on making cloth shoes.

in one day, she made these:

what???!!!!

just what i need... another obsession?

a shoe making class?

NO, please do NOT tempt me again to follow yet another new interest.

somehow,these become things that i have to learn as much as possible about.

before i know it, ten years has passed by.

and no, i cannot afford the plane fare to ITALY or FRANCE.

i mean really, if you are gonna want to make cool shoes, it sure is where to learn how.

or so i thought.

there is a very clever woman

i think her name is:

Jessica Haley.

she makes patterns for cute little shoes that she designs for little people.

her etsy store is:

joyfolie.etsy.com

every damn thing in this store is adorable.

worse yet, she has a more detailed full website:

http://joyfolie.com

and gasp, a blog too!

all i can say is that i am thrilled that my kids are too big for most of her clever little shoes.

the photos of her products and the child models are just lusciously captured.

i would spend time in therapy for not being able to match the standard set before me,

if i were to embark upon this notion

(i am going to try to restrain myself when the opportunity for another awful pun comes along).

I FEAR that

i might also be covered in small scraps of fabric

and trims like a human piece of vecro.

i would look similar to a suessian or george booth style cat lady,

only i would be covered with textile and trim detritus.

i can see it a little too clearly in my mind's eye.

it would not be good to travel down this path.

so i will try to use a little restraint.

i can just surf and watch the joyous efforts of folks who are successful with their obsessions.

i try to step into their vision

and i try to live vicariously.

dare i pun in supersize here?

step into their shoes for a lookie-loo?

{ok, had to get that outta my system.}

so here is the thing that hornswoggled me.

jessica, the shoe goddess of little itty bitty feet has her own forms of inspiration.

she used this palette of photos found here on her blog...

http://www.joyfolieblog.com/2011/03/design-day-day-28-kelanne.html

if you go to the blog, all the credits are there.

almost all the credit and links to the original images are too.

i will give you a couple of hints about one of them.

the upper left hand image IS MINE!!!

she used a photo i took of one of my flowery grab bags

that i sell in my store

sleepingdogstudio.etsy.com

you know i am blushing madly

and it is not a hot flash this time.

these are the little kiddie boots that she designed with her "inspiration pics"

figuring in someplace.

as color therapy perhaps?

any babe should be thrilled to have her little tootsies popped into these.

i am so tickled by these ... they are part of the 28 day challenge that joyfolie has going on.

more details on her blog.

for all i know it may be over...

still, i really love the whole group of teensy shoes for soft, flexible babies' feet.

i think i need say nothing more on this topic.

i could be in deep kimchee if i let out too much info about my interest in shoes.

ok, the chase for shoes, it used to consume me.

xoxoxo.

w.

yogurt is a cure all

i have watched too much t.v.

i know this because the ads seem to really test my speed and patience.

the speed is to get to the mute button on the remote control.

the patience is for dealing with the repetitiveness of ads and my tolerance for them.

right now, i am pretty tired of an ad for a specific brand of yogurt.

it promises to restore one's good tummy bacteria to a

healthier level.

it seems innocent and jamie lee curtis is a nice enough actress to watch.

the ad is on a lot.

i am irked by the sense that all the folks in any one of the ads are getting ripped off.

somehow the price of those itty bitty

yogurt cups for the price charged is completely out of sync.

(is it almost the price of silver now?)

right now,

i am trying to go back to what was a less complicated time in my life.

it involves a little faith in:

a little biology.

a little fun.

and maybe

a little dancing...as a celebration of what is both

easy to do and

healthy for me.

I saw a gadget on one of my foodier websites...

you know the kind that i am likelier to find in my email inbox.

i really thought i wanted it.

it was a yogurt maker.

all kinds of cool.

little neat cups in a round electric warming pan.

cups that could provide my household with scrummy good,

fresh and easily made yogurt.

as a matter of fact, i really could use this.

my husband eats a lot of yogurt.

honestly, i can tell what time of day it is

by whether the creamy cultured goodness has made its daily appearance.

as many folks have experienced,

the multiple brands on the market are all made in plastic containers

from small to larger.

with or without fruit.

some with vanilla.

some with coffee.

some are straight sided or are sloped sided.

some plain as can be without any additional flavoring.

(so you can add cucumbers with mint).

oh how many ways could i really enjoy this fountain of cultures.

hmmmm.

best not wax on too far with that.

one thing is that i knew for certain,

i never would be able to store that yogurt making gizmo.

my house is already glutted with stuff everywhere.

so i decided to work around a few different problems at one time.

i bought a case of 8 oz. canning jars.

the lids and jars can be re-used as many times as i feel like.

if they get dented or something, i can replace the lids alone for even less of the price.

who knows,

ultimately they might be available to serve me following one of my summer passion.

i love canning fruit.

bet you saw that one coming.

everyone here enjoys jam on their toast, except me ironically enough.

i may enjoy some in my jelly jars with freshly made yogurt though.

the color contrast on top or below the creamy matrix just keeps increasing the joy of the experiment.

a spoonful of home grown raspberries,

jelled up into a clear beauteous ruby jewel in a jar or

other tasty candied fruit juices

in a large spectrum of flavors mixed in with home made uber tangy yogurt?

YUMMY.!!!.

{SNAP!!!}

(digressed again.)

so buying jelly jars is about half the price of the yogurt maker.

this is a good thing martha!

My hubby makes nasty,squeaking, scraping sound while eating his snack.

it gives him pleasure that he can drive me nuts with this sound.

he pretends he is all kinds of virtuous eating his evening

calcium dairy additive

and that his bones are all the stronger for it.

i know we are at war over the minutia of living together.

it is not all that secret, how much he loves giving me the jitters over this sound.

evil genius.

i like the superiority of glass for the elimination of his noisy arsenal.

on a more kindly note, he looks so damn unhappy

when he nears the bottom of the ever shrinking portion sized container.

when i was a kid, this was surely 8 oz.

now it is either 6 or 4 oz. depending on the brand.

i always think he is looking into a bottomless chasm for a rare and special ore.

or into space to divine a new undiscovered star.

he just seems sad.

a third benefit for greener living is that there is no little cuppy thing to wash, store and recycle.

the 14 year old is in charge of the recycling here.

it is a deeply flawed system

sometimes it can be an easy one.

i need to make life less combative.

therefore, not having irregular, un-stackable cups to recycle

won't yield the same kind of issues.

so i have started to save the earth. the wallet. the messy kitchen.

and lets not forget my sense of sanity

or hubbie's slightly fuller belly.

it is all good.

heck, i may eat it daily too.

totally good for me and tart+ sweet to eat.

~~~~~~~~

here is how i make yogurt.

you probably know how to do this already.

if you don't...it is remarkably easy.

you really can do it in no time, without much effort

after all, the cultures do it almost all by themselves.

they are very clever this way!

INGREDIENTS:

1}milk. in whatever fat percentage you like.

2} obviously, you need some containers; cleaned for food use.

3} one cup of plain or vanilla yogurt from the grocery store.

(does not matter what brand ... just needs to have live cultures in it)

4} a warm place to leave undisturbed for a few hours(up to 24 hrs).

5} a heat source... i have done this in previous years using a pan and stovetop

to heat the milk.

tonight, i used a microwave.

6} sugar to taste. not essential, but i have a sweettooth.

INSTRUCTIONS:

A} warm milk in microwave to nearly boiling. steamy is good too.

you want to "kill"any bacteria that may be in your milk

that could compete with yogurt culturing bacteria.

elimination of these will

optimize the chances to make the milk transform into yogurt.

B} let this cool to the temperature that you might use to feed a bottle to a baby.

test it on your wrist for a familiar warm, not scalding nor cold temp.

C} i used a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup. this has a nice pouring spout and can let you

parse out the milk into your cups neatly and by a good amount.

(i was able to divide into thirds easily!)

D} i put all of my cups/jelly jars i a large saucepan

with about an inch of water in it and left it over the stove pilot flame.

this gave me a very nice warm place to start it all with.

an empty stove with the door cracked open or

an empty dishwasher also serve well to let the cultures do their thing.

E} pour some milk into the jars with a little bit of optional sugar.

to this add a spoon full of the live cultured store-bought starter and stir to mix well.

F} let sit in warm spot for a few hours.

G}.i do a lot of things at night. so i am likely to leave this out overnight.

in the morning or later that same day, put the jar caps on and refrigerate.

you ought to see some yogurty clumpiness forming in an hour or so.

just don't get the milk too hot again.

you don't want to kill off the good bacteria.

now you must have seen i have not used precise measurements.

you can let a smidge of yogurt culture go for a long time.

or a huge spoonful over a shorter amount of time.

up to you!

there is a lot of sugar for the cultures to grow on from the lactose in the milk.

the sugar is totally optional but nice since the end product is very tart.

also you can use a little of this batch to make your next batch of yogurt.

the texture of this is a smidge less silky,

just cause you are not adding any pectin.

it is ultimately a cleaner product and great for your tummy.

no lingering Jamie Lee Curtis

after effects...

unless of course you want some.

i am enjoying my first batch tonight.

it is delightfully tart,

sweet,

refreshing,

and time will tell if it refurbishes my deleted good belly cultures.

thanks...

eating well....

xoxox

W.

mother nature's real name is Lucy.

i have been in a funk recently.

i could not understand why or how long i might have to endure it.

it has been coming on for a bit.

i have to wonder how senile i am already.

i totally forgot that i get this way every year.

some folks combat this with the joy of a lamp.

it is a specialty item.

one that is used for folks with a touch or a bad case of seasonal disaffective disorder.

if i had to guess, i think i have a hefty dose of that going on.

in reality, my base of operations is southern new england.

this means, it is an area that has all the joys of

weather changing at the drop of a hat.

we tend to say around here, if you don't like the weather, stick around.

it will be totally different in five minutes.

however it is more like vermont or maine this year.

huge dumpings of snow.

eventual rain on top of snows to create ice.

in all of its treacherous, yet beautiful forms.

with this, i have been happy to just put on a thick and well loved sweater to wander

through my neighborhood with my dog

for some bonding time.

and generally get out of the house.

this serves as a great exercise mechanism some days.

the bottom line is that i hate winter.

everyone else here is fine with it.

i find it very inconvenient.

the huge piles of plowed snow are troubling for movement.

the grey light is depressing.

pretty much any of the wintry actions, are dead weight to me in the post holiday season.

i try to last.

i try not to get too excited by the first tender crocuses poking from beneath the snow blankets.

i try not to believe when the weather says it will be 57 degrees and sunny tomorrow.

i try to weather the ridiculous near freezing rains.

i try to withstand drivers having pre-mature spring driver as they wheel around town.

i try not to snap because i am grumpy.

i try to have patience waiting for real Spring to arrive.

i really try all sorts of strategies to make it til

serious Spring arrives.

the weather is gonna switch channels a few more times until my dream temp arrives.

in my waiting, i am gonna feel just like

Charlie Brown.

I can feel it in my bones,

Mother Nature is gonna mess with me many more times before my comfort zone is achieved.

she will be the LUCY to my CHUCK.

she will pull that damn football out from under me again and again.

just as i am about to try to kick it.

and yes, i know i shall fall on my stupendous tush

over and over

and over again.

Nice to meet you for reals Lucy.

you get me every time.

xoxo.w.