A Return

I know my posts here have been few and far between for a long time. I have neglected this blog as Facebook was so much easier for me. I loved the communication there and really enjoyed my page for a long time but Facebook has killed the business pages there. Few people even see my posts and I became quite frustrated with it months ago. I hope to put my efforts somewhere where it is not quashed and I feel I can reach people who care about what I want to show them. Right now any post I put up on Facebook has the potential to reach less than 10% of my followers and in most cases lately it has been less than 1%. Why go to the bother if no one even gets to see it. At least here I know if you want to see my things you can and no big brother is restricting your access!

Now That the Boxes Are Finally Unpacked

..not really. That was just wishful thinking. Though yes, the house is beginning to come into some kind of order. The rooms are different and full of lots of furniture from the previous owners. We have been playing a shuffle game that is slowly sending things up into the attic bedroom to be stored in the storage room back behind it eventually. The room that is to be my studio is a fright. Boxes and odd pieces of furniture stacked in piles taking up most of the room....except the small area where the leak was discovered and the wall was torn apart to discover the source. I don't see me getting into that room any time soon.
My hands are full with everything here. Rooms that need to be organized, garden areas that need to be prepared, just the basic everyday tasks are monumental here at times (we still dont have the washer hooked up, no oven or dishwasher) And yet, despite all this. my fingers itch to create again. All my supplies are packed away somewhere in that huge pile in the studio. SO...I have decided to make some rag rugs. My floors are cold. I need rugs and really I WANT rag rugs. I love their look, their cozy feel they put to a room. So I must make a loom. I think it can be relatively easy. I looked at a few in videos on youtube and on websites. I really love the ones that use a nice thin bar along the edge that they wrap the strips of cloth around as they weave so you dont get the hourglass shape when you are finished. How clever! So this is my next task, to convince Frenchie to take me to the hardware store to buy the supplies I need to make a loom and then I will have something to satisfy my creative itch! And if any of you have some good tips to help me along the way i would certainly appreciate it. This will be my first rag rug adventure!

Where the Adventure Starts Getting Real Interesting

I have hinted at big changes for over a year now and I have posted very little about what is going on but I want you to know I am still here, still very happy and have just went through the biggest change of all! We decided to settle down and buy a small chalet up in the mountains of the Vosges!

It is not far from Colmar and the wine road. Very close to Kaysersberg up the mountain side towards the pass. We are within 4 km of a ski station and a few others not much farther. It has a bit of land with it...not much but enough that I can have a garden, maybe some chickens and plenty of space to do dye experiments outside. Something I have wanted to do for a long time but the constraints of apartment living just kept holding me back. Now if I want an indigo vat I can have one! Sun dyeing...no problem. I have a nice big studio with a separate entrance from the house so any smelly experiments are not going to gas us out of the whole house LOL!

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be up here in the mountains. It has a different rhythm, a different feel, quiet, calm...tranquil. We also just became the proud owners of this beautiful little girl, Iota

She is a German Shepard and will be my faithful companion and protector when I am here alone. I adore her! She is such a baby still and shows me how much with her clumsy playful antics. She makes me laugh out loud every single day and has already brought such joy to my life. 

Right now we are still in the middle of settling into our little home. We had a long extended move from the apartment, doing it all with our van. The drive was an hour each way and once arriving here at the chalet Frenchie had to bring the 4x4 down from the house to the church parking lot and load it up to bring things back up. It normally took three loads to get the van empty. We did quite a bit during Christmas vacation and then afterwards each weekend we would bring another load up. I am SO glad that is over and I think Frenchie is even more so! 

For now my studio is a scary jumble of boxes and things that had no where else to go right now. It is quite cold up here and the house has no heating system. They had been relying on electric and gas space heaters though I dont think anyone has actually lived here for a long time, it was mainly a vacation chalet.

Anyway I hope to get in there as soon as possible...after the rest of the house gets sorted. Then I can finally satisfy this itch to sew again. I have ideas screaming in my head like you wouldn't believe. In the meantime I will be planning my first real gardening adventure. I hope it isn't a total failure. I did alright with my balcony gardening. Nothing spectacular but I proved I can keep my plants alive. Some of my fall plantings are still plugging away in their planters where they were dumped by the house, even surviving the snow dumped on them. Surely I can keep a few veggies alive in the ground? Who knows? It's another new adventure *grin*

Summer Fun

Hello again! I hope the summer is treating you well. We had quite a hot streak awhile back but things have cooled back down again and I can enjoy the weather a bit more. We have been up to the mountains again and love it up there so much we might even move there. You never know!

The van is shaping up quite nicely. Frenchie still needs to work on the shelving storage system but other than that we are good to go. We took a trip up last week to a new lake and it was quite nice. When I got tired I just climbed into the van and out like a light! It's so beautiful and I am thankful for the opportunity to spend some time up there among all the nature.
   So this month I have started on my journey of learning to make at home natural products for the home and body. The first two things I made were toothpaste and deodorant. I am pleased to say that I am VERY happy with both. In fact I won't ever go back to store bought. Why did I wait so long? Next in line is homemade sunscreen. I hope to make that today or tomorrow. I have a big long list of things I want to make including cleaners and balms, etc. Having the balcony garden is a help as I do have some herbs out there to use as ingredients. I hope to keep adding beneficial herbs as I go. i also planted 6 new tubs of fall veggies: greens, broccoli, carrots, cauli, etc. They are already peeking their little heads out of the soil and I hope they continue to grow unmolested. I have had quite a few battles with the aphids and now caterpillars. Who knew they could find me up here so high in the sky? I haven't had a large harvest off my garden yet though I have had a steady small supply of lettuce coming in and a small handful of cherry tomatoes every day or so. It's not much but it is a beginning and I think next year I will do much better now that I am learning. I also managed to make 6 more bottles of red current cordial and one very concentrated bottle of black current cordial. They are both simply delicious! I ordered some water kefir this week and want to start making kefir sodas. I will probably try some ginger and cream flavored sodas with the kefir. I can't wait to try it! Why put junk in your body when you can drink such wonderful healthy drinks?

  As to doing anything creative wise, I did finish my paisley necklace finally and I have started on several sewing projects.

 I am in sore need of a few dresses and had some nice material floating around in the supply closet so I decided to give it a whirl. It's been awhile since I made myself something so why not? I also have plans to make a new purse. I do tend to flit about going from one thing to another but it sure does keep life interesting!

 So how has your summer been going? Been anywhere interesting?

Busy at Life

So a half a year has passed since I wrote on this blog and yes, there were big changes. Though I believe the changes are still coming.
      We bought a van this year for travelling. We are slowly fixing it up to make it into a camping van. We are trying to enjoy this area we are living in as much as possible while we are here. How much longer we are here is anyone's guess. We have made several excursions up into The Vosges and down the wine road, exploring a little farther each time. Last week we bought a mattress for the van and several other things to equip it. Next week we are working on building a platform for the mattress. It will be in two parts so the one side can slide on top of the other side and the mattress can be folded up to make a bench, giving room in the van during the day. Yesterday I dyed the top of the mattress cover. It is still soaking in the tub waiting for it's time to go into the washer, then I will dye the other half. It is really big! I thought it would be much better to dye it than to put a white mattress in the van. I was lucky that it has a removable cover and the cover is mostly cotton.
    I also started a small balcony garden. I have been wanting to do this for awhile but was very unsure about my likely success being up so high and only having a western facing balcony with high wind. I finally reached a point where I just didn't care anymore though and decided to just go for it and hope for the best. So far it has done quite well with only a few mishaps. Seeing as the only gardening I have done on my own before is an herb garden I am quite happy.
   I have grown increasingly concerned with the quality of the food available on this world. I think way too often we don't even consider what is going into our bodies when we stuff our mouths with this overly processed, chemical laden, nutrient lacking goop we call food. I hate Monsanto, but they are only the tip of the iceberg (although a very large tip at that) By starting my garden I, in my mind, am making a concrete decision to clean up my eating habits. I have resolved to make trips to the market more often, grow what I can and simplify, simplify, simplify!
   I have also been researching fermented foods and their health benefits for your body. I had no idea how important your gut bacteria are and just how many different health problems are linked to problems with your flora. I have slowly introduced myself to fermented milk and other dairy products. Today I am going to make fermented pickles and hopefully soon I will be making fermented sauerkraut and kimchi. I bought a great book called 'Fermented Foods for Health' by Deirdre Rawlings and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a deep interest in the reasons behind why you need fermented foods in your life.Almost the entire first half of the book goes into a detailed discussion on the subject and the rest of the book is full of great menu plans and lots of wonderful sounding recipes.
   Another thing I have been studying and slowly gathering ingredients for is working towards making the things in my house more natural...such as households cleaning fluids, body cleansers, sunscreen, etc. I am tired of exposing myself to so many chemicals. Every label I look at is full of so many chemicals and additives it's crazy. People didn't use to live like this so I know i don't have to!
   Lastly I bought a dehydrator and I am learning how to use it. I would prefer to use good veggies straight from the farms in dried form over anything you buy at the supermarket who's nutrient value is dubious. I have only made a few things so far but it's fun and i can see the benefits of it. I had no idea how many different things you can dry!
   So as you can see, I have been quite busy in life and that is besides my art. My art is another story. I still have many thoughts to changes there. I have spent too many years making my dyed items and selling them so cheap that I have come to think of myself as a big joke. I barely make any money from what I do. It's hard work requiring many steps and I sell my items in a currency that is worth less than the one in the country I live in. Frenchie said something the other day that really struck home to me. He said 'It's like I am paying for part of the work you do' And that is so true. I need to start thinking more seriously as an artist...as an artist who makes her living doing this work. If I were alone and doing this there is no way in hell I could afford to charge what I do. I have come to disrespect myself so much that I barely get any joy from what I do. This needs to change. It has deeply affected how I feel about all of my art and I have lost my inspiration. Who wants to create when they feel what they make has no worth?