why flickr is awesome

so, i've mentioned flickr a bit in passing, mainly as a way to let the rellies know where they can see pictures of the kids...but today i'm going to tell you why flickr is awesome and what i do with it (besides post pictures of the kids for the rellies.)

it's free to join flickr, so you can upload photos and look at other people's photos and check out groups, if you want. you get 100 MBs of uploading goodness, which suffices for the casual photo uploader. if you get hooked on it, like me, you can upgrade to a "pro" account, for $24.95/year (rodney upgraded my account for me a couple of days ago, as an early birthday present--thanks, hunny!)...this allows you unlimited uploads, access to statistical data about which of your pics get the most views (and other info, i haven't figured it all out yet)...i quickly learned that would be a necessity for me, if i wanted to participate in a few of the themed groups (i do).

initially i joined so that i could participate in the "bend the rules sewing" flickr group--an offshoot of the awesome book of that title, by amy karol (http://www.angrychicken.typepad.com)...and in my playing around i discovered thousands upon thousands of groups...if you can think of something, there is a group for it (well, almost, i tried to find a group dedicated to dead stuff as art/home deco--inspired by this post of loki's-- http://lokikohall.blogspot.com/2009/01/dead-envy.html--and couldn't find one, but that is a pretty obscure and random thing to search for). if you don't find a group dedicated to a topic you MUST photograph and share, then you can start your own group.

so, by joining groups, like one dedicated to a hobby of yours, for example--in my case, sewing/crafting--you start to see other people's photos, and their photos that are posted to the group link back to their photostream, so you can see all of their pictures (if they are set to be public--you can set your pictures to be private, and then only people you approve can view them, if you want)...and you can see what other groups they belong to...and then it's more six degrees of photo heaven. you may stumble across an awesome group you never knew existed and have to join. i did.

my latest discovery is a monthly scavenger hunt group http://www.flickr.com/groups/monthlyhunt/pool/ . i fell instantly in love with this idea: at the beginning of the month a list is posted of 20 words or phrases--sometimes there is a theme, sometimes not--and the members of the group are challenged to post one picture for each item on the list, either something they go out and find or something they may already have in their archives. once you complete the twenty item long list, you post a mosaic of your photos, and the group can vote on them, if they want. just for fun. some of this month's words/phrases: piquant, umami, crisp, bitter, salty, sweet, tomb, illegal, kanji, pink slip, maximum efficiency...it is the absolute perfect group for me, as it has cool words, awesome pictures, is mentally challenging without being impossible or overly time-consuming, and it's fun! i love the way it has shifted my thinking, inspired creativity, and brought my camera permanently out of the dresser drawer. my camera now goes everywhere with me--i never know when i might find the perfect photograph!

there are groups dedicated to various forms of 365--you take a photograph every day. some of them are self portrait groups, themed groups, assigned item groups, etc. etc. i haven't quite mustered up the nerve to join one of the 365 groups yet, but i do plan to. i love the idea of that small promise, to take a photograph every day. i love seeing what people come up with, how people capture their days, their lives.

it's a strange, world-wide community of people who, like me, love photographs.

today i am grateful for:
1) vesta doing the dishes
2) hazel folding the laundry
3) jubal not being insanely clingy
4) the pleasure of cooking meals
5) the radish sprouts in my new garden bed

my etsy shop is open!!!

yes! it's true! please visit my etsy shop and let me know what you think. it's small right now (five items), but it's up and people are looking at it (and i even got favorited!) i've worked really hard and will continue to work really hard and i'm SOOOOO happy for myself right now. i managed to get my very own bank account and paypal account, and i'm feeling quite grown up and official. i'm open to critiques and comments (and compliments!), so don't be afraid to let me know what you think, and spread the word!
www.jubalicious.etsy.com

i am grateful for:
1) global marketing
2) etsy
3) every scrap of time i have
4) the print shop filling my business card order swiftly
5) doing what i love

the saga of my back pain or why i am a medicine maven

i have alluded in recent posts to my bum back...about a week and a half ago, as i was walking into the bedroom to lay with jubal while he fell asleep, my back spasmed--the lower left quadrant. i thought something clever like "that was weird" followed by "that hurts" and went to bed. it hurt throughout the night and on into the next day. and the next. and the next. rodney suggested going to the doctor, which seemed silly to me, as he'd probably say i need to lose weight (no, really?!) and maybe give me some pills, which i didn't really want. but, as the pain persisted, it started to seem like a better idea--those potential pills were starting to take on a glorified weight in my mind. i thought about occasions for vicadin of the past (post-hospital stay for The Appendix and a couple of wisdom tooth pulls) and i thought that might be really nice right now...so i went. but he wouldn't give me vicodin because i'm nursing--even though most of my research says it's probably okay, and i extrapolated that since jubal's not nursing much anyways, and doesn't actually get much milk, he would get barely any of the dose himself...this doctor is a real stickler. so he gave me the only muscle relaxer nursing mamas can have (baclofin) and high dose ibuprofin. nothing. no relief--except for the night that i added two beers to the mix, knowing that alcohol can enhance the effects of the baclofin (no worries, the kids were asleep and i wasn't driving anywhere)...not a dosing strategy that i can maintain! the doctor had told me to be back in a week if it was still bothering me, so i went back yesterday...

the doctor suggested seeing a chiropractor or at least getting some therapeutic massage, neither of which my insurance will pay for. he also said we could x-ray my back next time if it didn't improve, but then said "or we could do it now"--we'd be looking for arthritis or degeneration (at which i made some crazy sound which meant "dammit, i cannot handle anything that's going to be time consuming or depressing!", but which the doctor interpreted as me laughing at the idea of a 29 year old with arthritis)..."let's do it, " i said, so we did. i was x-rayed by some strange lady in this weird dungeon of a room at the clinic, laying on a hideously uncomfortable table, wearing a ridiculous "gown". while i was waiting for the doctor to return to discuss my films with me, i was looking at them glowing on the outdated wall-mounted light table, feeling pride and wonder at the human body, so gloriously made and beautifully built. my spine was so lovely.

the doctor quickly returned to inform me that i did have arthritis, i did have degeneration, and that one of my vertebrae is in the wrong place, which he "would expect to be uncomfortable." he said if i weaned the baby he would give me something stronger. gee thanks.

so i started thinking herbs. i contemplated the tincture of opium poppy i made many years ago "just in case", but thought that better be a last resort. so i stilled myself and thought about what i've learned all these years of studying herbalism, thought about plants that i know are analgesic, but which are still mild and safe, did a little quick internet research to confirm my intuitions, and called wise woman herbs to see if they had everything i wanted. they did. rodney wanted to golf in creswell anyways, so i enlisted him to pick up my pre-ordered bag of pain-relieving goodness...upon his return several long and pain-filled hours later, i quickly mixed myself up my first experimental dose--would it work? would it make me too sleepy or cause a stomach ache? did i pick the right combo, the right dose? it worked, folks. it worked quickly and well. and it didn't even taste bad. my body was quickly flooded with soothingness itself, and my mind was calmed (three of my choices are nervines). so here is the magic blend, because i know you're all dying to know: 1 part passionflower, 1 part scullcap, 1 part white willow and 2 parts california poppy (which i already had on hand, fortuitously having made two quarts of it in '07)...after the relief settled in, i felt so pleased with myself and was so happy to have my faith in herbs renewed--my faith in tonics is strong as an ox, but i did wonder about how herbs would do to relieve pain when the handfull of pills from the doctor did pretty much nothing (except make me puke when i took it before eating breakfast!), i realized i hadn't double-checked their compatibility with nursing! oh crap! i rushed to pull out my PDR for herbal medicine and checked the white willow...safe! i checked the others as well, even though i already knew they were safe, just to be sure. safe! yes!

and that is the saga of my back pain and why i am a medicine maven.

i am grateful for:
california poppy
passionflower
white willow
scullcap
intuition

evidence mounts that i don't know what i'm doing

i decided to add a list of my labels to the sidebar of my blog...in case anyone out in the world actually needed to, like, conduct research using my blog (?! i don't know why i did this!?)...of course my list of labels reads like a really bad poem and it was instantly revealed that i haven't been using labels they way they were meant to be used. so i commit to using them better in the future. for now, there are A LOT of random one-reference items that will make it super easy for that bizarre one person out there who needs to know something about "bipolar craft disorder" or "the trials and tribulations of crafting" or "vintage sheets made into pants" (i'm dedicated to making more posts about that one!) or "MRI results resulting in a simple tic disorder diagnosis" (one of my personal faves)...i'm just not that good at being willing to do things the way they were meant to be done sometimes. on my flickr page i have a label that says "everything improves with a dirty martini" or something like that and--can you believe it?--i am the ONLY person on flickr with that label. heh. i spent some time this morning trying to consolidate some of the posts with super-similar labels (variations on the same word or phrase and such), but i've done all i'm willing to do in the tidying up phase of labeldom and can only promise to be more consistent in the future.

i'm sorry to anyone reading this, i realize it probably means nothing to you, but i did start this blog as a way to just make sure and WRITE something--anything--often and well, and i feel i've done that today, even if i am the only person i've amused with my exercise. and that is a run-on sentence, folks. enjoy.

today i am going to make the kids do all the chores (mainly dishes and laundry folding--the two mountains of our house) and i am very gingerly (as my back is screwed up) going to plant the following seeds in my awesome new gardens (they are actually the same gardens, but all fenced in and with new soil and compost and woodchips and plants...so, LIKE new): potatoes, skullcap, kale, chard, radishes, lettuce, my third crop of peas, and whatever other seeds i find that can go in now.

i am grateful for:
1. my kids' willingness to help
2. that rodney deeply dug the potato and herb beds for me yesterday
3. medicinal herbs (jubal got an infection in his finger over the weekend which was not ER-worthy, but did need dealing with and the clinic isn't open on sundays...i treated it with thyme tincture and a poultice of goldenseal root and sage and it cleared up almost completely over night! i'm so pleased he didn't have to take antibiotics and that i still have the knack for herbal medicine)
4. modern conveniences like washing machines
5. cookbooks

my birthday wish list

yes, my birthday approaches. i will be thirty whole years old (it strikes me as wondrously hilarious that there was a time and were a people who once considered thirty to be over the hill! i haven't even APPROACHED that hill yet...i can't even SEE it on the horizon of my life!)...in honor of the impending celebration of my (nearly) perpetual aging, here is my birthday wish list for anyone who might be interested. ahem.

it's a list, but it's not ranked in order of importance or preference:

1. stainless steel electric tea kettle (my (non-electric) tea kettle died over a year ago when vesta spaced off that she was boiling water and i've been using a saucepan to boil water for too dang long) http://www.hammacher.com/publish/74961.asp?source=Bizrate&keyword=74961&cm_ven=NewGate&cm_cat=Bizrate&cm_pla=HOME%20ESSENTIALS&cm_ite=74961# (just an example)

2. tea pot, preferably the clear glass variety (my brown betty finally hit the sink the wrong way. ouch) this one is particularly lovely: http://www.teavana.com/Tea-Products/Teapots-Teapot-Sets/Glass-teapots/Amelie-Glass-Teapot.axd

3. chicken coop and roomy chicken tractor/movable run--the right size for two or three chickens--such as this one:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Backyard-Chicken-Coop/

4. an upgrade to pro on my flickr account (now that i've joined the scavenger hunt--post to come soon--i need to get rid of the monthly megabite limit so i can post 20 photos for the hunt and still be able to post pictures of the kids and the crafts and the garden http://www.flickr.com/photos/hedgenettle/

5. two apple trees--maybe the columnar varieties they have at territorial...in my extra wild dreams they would come with giant pots so that when we move (either to a bigger house or a whole 'nother area) i can take them with me http://www.territorialseed.com/product/7833/163

6. king size jersey sheets like these in blue, purple or brown: http://www.target.com/Home-Bamboo-Jersey-Sheet-Pillowcase/dp/B001J096R8/qid=1240246827/ref=br_1_7/180-7129519-3809506?ie=UTF8&node=344723011&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1

or these in lavender: http://www.target.com/Home-Organic-Sheet-Sets/dp/B001LQWV3Q/qid=1240247166/ref=br_1_3/180-7129519-3809506?ie=UTF8&node=341519011&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1

what can i say? i'm worth it!

i am grateful for:
instructables/online tutorials
links
fantasies
flickr
my family

happy birthday, eldest child

vesta is eleven today! she is a wonderful child, mostly effortless to raise and a pleasure to know and love. she was born at home after a full twenty four hours of labor. present at her birth were: lorin and myself, dad, jan, dawn, clarebeth the midwife and her wonderful assistant kimberly stonebreaker. there was much walking on the day leading up to her birth and it was a beautiful april day...it had been a warm and early spring, so many flowers were in bloom and i especially remember the lilacs. i am surprised every year when i go out in the world to find myself some lilac blooms for her birthday bouquet to find that they often are not out yet. after the many, many painful and somewhat frightening hours of labor it suddenly (or so it seemed) was time to push! 30 minutes of pushing later and she emerged into the world, pure and innocent--all the pain and effort of her birth instantly forgotten and forgiven. she was perfect and wonderful. she still is.

we spent the morning baking pound cake for her birthday dinner tonight (my easy and kind daughter chose "awesome sandwiches" for her birthday meal!)...vesta, hazel, jubal and i all working together to mix and blend and pour and bake. it was lovely and fun.

vesta is: a talented artist, surprisingly funny, generous, kind, patient, helpful, amusing, free-spirited, too hard on herself, beautiful, sweet, loving, smart, a pleasure.

happy birthday, vesta bean! i love you.

i am grateful for: vesta, vesta, vesta, vesta, vesta.

amazon's fixing it...

just a quick update on the amazon tip...apparently it was caused by a coding error, so there is no need to boycott amazon just yet...here are the links if you want to learn more:

http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=4528

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/04/it-was-dark-and-silly-night.html

i'm not sure WHY my links don't seem to be working as links, but you can copy and paste if you're itching to know more.

neil gaiman's journal quips better than i could about the humorous possibility that the coding error was made by a frenchmen, giving the english something else to blame on them. being that i'm not english the joke wouldn't work that well coming from me...but it does seem like everyone blames the french for everything.

um, WHAT?! amazon are you crazy?

i was checking out neil gaiman's journal this morning (something i haven't done for months) and he was posting about amazon deleting GLBTQ titles from their ranks (making them harder to find in a search, among other things)...and i was like, WHAT?! that is stupid and unfair and it will be interesting to see what amazon does about it. i just wanted to pass along this link (which has other links) if you're interested.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/04/amazonfail-sunday.html

(this link doesn't seem to be actually BEING a link--but i think i linked the title to neil's blogpost, so you can try that if you want to read it)

stupid, stupid, stupid.

i am grateful for:
voting with my dollars
neil gaiman
interconnectedness
freedom
love

just a note

our computer has been away for a few days, getting de-bugged and more-RAMmed and otherwise being serviced...so i apologize for the break in posts and look forward to getting back to it this weekend. i have LOTS to post about. such as: the hazards of love (the new decemberists album), gardening in spring, recent reads, lack of time (my constant battle!), DIY recipes, and more.

i am grateful for: computing speed, patience (it'll be ready in the morning...er, evening...er tomorrow morning...er....), vesta and hazel helping with jubal, brooms, washing machines.

nettle time

nettles rock! i'm drinking nettle tea right now...

so, it's nettle harvest time and i was blessed enough to get an invite with loki and ronan to go out to cougar mountain to a friend's place (thank you, anna!) to pick our fill. i couldn't find my gloves and loki forgot hers, so we were both bare fingering it and i have the stings to prove it. i'm usually pretty good at touching nettles without getting stung (grasp around the stem firmly, paying attention, and pinch!), but in a mass-collection scenario, you're bound to get stung because you're working fast and it's easy to brush your hand against the nettles (it's the light brushes that really get ya). i'm fine today (we went on friday), but for the last two days i have had the most incessant itch on my hands. last night, in desperation, i slathered my hands with my homemade deodorant, having noticed earlier in the day when i applied it that it seemed to soothe the sting a bit. it didn't really work. but it's worth a couple days itching and tingling for the stock of fresh, local nettles.

i have my nettles hanging from a string of yarn in the living room, loosely stuffed into little paper bags (you can dry herbs in big paper bags, as well, but i didn't have any on hand, now that i make my own shopping bags)...which i find to be the best drying method--they don't get dusty or exposed to light, and dry pretty fast (although i just remembered that i forgot to leave the bags open for a night to let the bugs out...i was on my second glass of wine when i was processing the nettles). another method that works well is those flat boxes like you get when you buy plants or that are under soda six packs and canned tuna...you can layer herbs into those and stack them perpendicular to each other and leave in a cool, dry, dim location for a couple of weeks (i don't have any locations like that in my house, but i'm just lettin' ya know). this method works for nettles because in this case we harvested just the tops, if you harvest the stocks, just bundle them up in small groups and hang to dry for a couple of weeks.

the main uses of nettles, in my opinion, are nutritional--for the record there are medicinal, foody (rennet for cheese), and fiber uses as well--it makes an awesome tonic being high in several vitamins and minerals, including iron, vitamins A and D, ascorbic acid, choline, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium. to name a few. also, it's super high in chlorophyll--a much better "green food" than those crazy pond scum varieties (like spirulina). so i mainly use it in my tonic infusions (infusions being extra steeped teas, basically) mixed with some oatstraw and mint or lemon balm for flavor (my goal this year is to start drinking tonic infusions every day again)...and i powder it up and add it to my breads, soups, stews, chili, casseroles, etc. when it's fresh and in season (in this area that is NOW) it's also a straight-up food, steamed in a bit of water for ten minutes or so it's an awesome side dish green. when i got home from harvesting, hazel was literally running around the house screaming "steamed nettles! steamed nettles!". and the pot liquor (the water left over from steaming it) is a quick shot of nutrition if you can drink it down, or add to soup, or (this is what i did) used as a hair rinse, or dump it on a plant (i've got a pretty good windowsill herb garden going at the moment).

hazel discovered a patch of nettles (the hard way!) over near where the girls have built their fort and yesterday loki went and harvested those. she was nice enough to give me a bag of them (yay!) and now those are drying on the string as well. i noticed a big patch of nettles in the east regional park last year, so i'm going over there today to see if i can score some just to eat on for a few days. there are also tons of gorgeous nettles growing in north regional park, but they are right next to the golf course, so i won't eat them, though they are really tempting and i think we did harvest some last year as far as we could get from the golf course, just for a meal though, not extended eating or medicine making. last year around this time is when the hashimoto's (as of yet undiscovered) was really knocking me down and i think i was just too damn tired to go harvest any for the year (i got my supply from frontier). so the pig pills, gym going, and extra vitamins must be working because right now i cannot imagine allowing mere tiredness to stop me from going nettle picking.

thanks again to loki, ronan, and anna for letting me tag along and for the extra bag of nettles.

today i am grateful for:
1) you guessed it: nettles
2) michael moore--the herbalist, not the filmmaker (though i'm grateful to him as well)...i heard michael moore died recently and i send my regards to the big herb garden in the sky. (his herb books/field guides are THE best)
3) wonderful friends
4) generosity
5) spring

update:it occurred to me a week or so ago, that perhaps the nettles we were picking at cougar mountain were the dwarf variety...which if memory serves is an annual, rather than the standard urtica dioica perennial variety--dwarf nettles are known for their wollap-packing sting and anna asked us to leave a plant or two in each five foot radius to re-seed...the lightbulb illuminates in my brain!

jubal's first haircut

yes, i finally did it. we cut his bangs a while back, for visibilities sake, but i just wasn't ready to part with the curls. for a while now i've been looking at his locks, thinking about cutting them...chewing on the idea, and even asking him if he was ready to cut his hair (he always said no). then a couple of days ago jubal and vesta emerged from the den that is the girls' bedroom and she had, once again, dressed him as a pretty little girl with big poofy pigtails and a dress-sized (on him) undershirt. she said his name was penelope. it irked me. i realize it's harmless play and everyone has fun, but it irked my anyways. somehow, that sealed it for me. i whipped out the hair scissors and a big bowl to hold the hair and snip-snip-snipped it away. goodbye hair. it's not all short and clipped in true boy style--i was hoping to preserve some top curls, plus i don't know how to cut hair like that. so he's sort of a cross between peter pan and a victorian boy toddler, with some haley mills (circa parent trap) thrown in. he's adorable and it's fun to see his eyes so clearly, as well as his handsome neckline. it was a bittersweet occasion, but i'm pleased with the results...now we'll see if everyone STILL assumes he's a girl.

i'm grateful for: berries, freezers, washing machines, love, bittersweetness