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Doctor of Love

Recently Pope Benedict XVI declared that we are soon to be honored to have two new saints declared doctors of the Church. The two saints are St. John of Avila and St. Hildegard. I must confess, as much as I am excited about having new doctors, I am ignorant as to who they are and what they've written. Though I suppose that part of the point of naming these saints as doctors is to encourage the faithful to explore their writings and teachings after all.

As I got to thinking about how I knew so little about them I also began to realize how little I know about the 33 doctors we currently are blessed with. I know that the doctors have each given some new light to mysteries of God and of the Faith, as such they have been bestowed with titles such as The Doctor Grace, in the case of Saint Augustine. Some are much more particular like Saint Bede the Venerable who is the Doctor of English History (though his contributions to philosophical and theological study are certainly well beyond the bounds of either time or geography).

In my search to find more charisms and therefore, titles, of the doctors I found that St. Therese of Lisieux is not only the Doctor of Confidence, but also the Doctor of Love. Having heard this I couldn't help but to come up with the following design for a T-shirt and sticker:

 

Keep in mind that imagining the text being narrated by Barry White helps really active that double entendre hinted at by the rockin' 70's font.

Being that I am still in the (albeit final) stages of printing up the Communion with ROME gives me Extraordinary Form shirts and stickers I am not yet in the active production of the above design. However, don't let that stop you from voicing your opinion.

Is this a shirt or sticker that you'd like to exist? If they were to exist would you buy them? Did you know that St. Therese is the Doctor of Love or did you just think that was a title reserved to KISS fans trying to impress their old ladies? If St. Therese is the Doctor of Love is it too much of a stretch to call her the O.G of Love (I know space cowboy would be too much)? Feel free to add any other mildly outdated musical allusions as well as you comment below...

Make It: Collage Writings

A small teaser for the upcoming Aggiornamento Art and Cultural Exhibition opening tomorrow night.

I'm a Winner! - Update

So we received our wonderful drawing from Reading (and chickens) the other day and its, well... awesome.

(note, just so you aren't confused, the drawing is the second image)

I'm a winner!

So I was over at Reading (and Chickens) the other day and noticed an awesome little contest that she was putting together in which there was a drawing for some goodies inspired by nothing more than the goodness of her heart. The goodies were sweet, but I was much more interested in getting one of her trademark drawings, so I do what any sensible person would do: pretend like the drawing included a custom drawing and put my name in the proverbial hat. (its like a situational red herring) Since she's a nice lady, and since I was the only person who was in that particular part of the drawing that I made up, I won!

After many attempts to get me to email her I finally sat down and composed the following. It was so absurd that I figured I'd share it with you all (and posting here fulfills my part of the contractual obligation at the end of the email) So without further ado: my email to Reading (and Chickens):

 

Thanks for graciously accepting my entry into the drawing drawing that weren't even aware you were having. And to boot I won!?!?! woohoo!

My wife seems to think a portrait of me would be fun because I'm kind of the personification of a cartoon character as it is. (fat beardo who is often holding either a baby, a dachshund or both)

However, a fun project that I sometimes subject my family and friends to is the aesthetic version of mad libs (don't have a name for it yet, maybe you can assist in that avenue). Essentially you ask 3 separate people for 3 separate words which you them must incorporate into an image (or object for that matter, but the internet hasn't come so far as to be able to deliver things of the 3rd dimension through fiber optics...yet)

To give some semblance of sense to the would be image it is permissible (read:recommended) that you give the prospective word giver a category to refine their seemingly random word choices.

To further complicate things, other individuals can supply the categories as well.

Since that is highly convoluted, lets set a scenario:

(cast of characters: Artist: a woman who percievably loves reading and chickens, Person 1: her husband a man who loves women who love reading and chickens, Person 2: her son, lover of reading sentences which include exclamation marks, Person 3: Joey, [as noted above] a fat beardo who is often holding either a baby, a dachshund or both)

Artist (to person 1): Give me a category of nouns.
Person 1: Things you'd find in the back of the fridge.
Artist (to person 2): Tell me something you'd find in the back of the fridge.
Person 2: That sticker that explains how the fridge works.
Artist: Hm...very accurate, thank you.
Artist: now give me a category of verbs
Person 2: things you'd do to a penguin
Artist (to person 3): Tell me something you'd do to a penguin.
Person 3: um.. cuddle it, I'm not sure there are any other possible answers to such a question.
Artist: touche', now give me a category of places
Person 3: places you'd never want to work
Artist (to person 1): Tell me a place that you'd never want to work
Person 1: hog rendering plant
Artist: *begins diligently working on a drawing of Joey cuddling a fridge sticker at a hog rendering plant*

See? Isn't that ingenious? It has all the esoteric class of fine art, but all of the shenanigans of blog art.

(rereads the above email)

Ok, on second thought, just post and illustrate the above email, that would be super entertaining.

I'll post it on my blog if you post it on yours!

Saturday Aesthetic Expression: Guy Fawkes Day

Editing error- Post written by Joey on Brittany's account.  We're so "one" we write for each other now!

Today is celebrated throughout Great Britain as "Guy Fawkes Day".  When you think of Guy Fawkes, what do you think of?  As an American the only thing that comes to mind is fireworks (well, that or V for Vendetta)

(photo credit)

But why on earth do those Brits set off explosions on Guy Fawkes?  Cause that's what he did, well...tried to do.

(photo credit)

Guy Fawkes was a convert to Catholicism after his mother married a Catholic when his father died when he was 8 years old.  But he lived in England when being a Catholic was not exactly safe.  So he moved to Spain for awhile and fought for the Catholic Spainards during the 80 years war before returning home to try and "replace" Queen Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch and return England to the Church.  Well, that kind of backfired- with imprisonment, torture and execution.

(photo credit)

Anyway, we're Catholic, and not so fond of all the bad things Queen Elizabeth and her ilk did to British Catholics like Fawkes, St. William of York and countless other untold martyrs for the Faith. Today the protestant Brits celebrate his defeat by burning effigies of the Guy Fawkes and of the Pope, but that's crazy cuz the Pope is great. Queen Elizabeth on the other hand was a bit of a tyrant.

(photo credit)

And you know what they say in ol' Virginny (where Brittany hails from), "Sic Semper Tyrannis" or in other words:"thus always to tyrants" or in other, other words "this is what yer tyrannical ways'll get ya".

I made our effigy of Queen Elizabeth, though before the addition of the portrait of Elizabeth (printed draft quality of course) it was running precariously close to being a little too blair witchy. I dunno, you be the judge.

(photo credit)

In addition to the creation of the effigy, we also decided to rewrite the traditional Guy Fawkes Day children's rhyme:

Remmember remember the fifth of November

revolution and freedom besought.

I see no reason why tyranny's season

Should ever be forgot...

So yea... there is a long tradition of exacting vengence upon those whom you revile or, in the least irritate you, throughout art history. You don't have to know a lot about the interpersonal relationships of Michaelangelo to guess that the fella he painted in hell with the ears of an ass and a snake biting him was probably not "besties" with the famed sistine chapel painter.

 

(photo credit)

Symbolism is such a great thing. I mean, its way better to paint a guy with a snake biting his "special area" than it is to punch him in the face. Less violent, and a vengence that lasts the ages. That guy is long dead, but everyone is still quite clear of how Michaelangelo felt about him.

 better to burn in these fires than in the eternal ones

Similarly with Queen Elizabeth, I'd much rather burn an effigy of her to abate my personal vengeance and pray for her soul to be spared from God's Justice by His Mercy than the alternative.

FauxBucks Pumpkin Spice Latte!

I did it!  I said I would try, and I did- all month I've been working on my "Pumpkin Spice Latte".  Something I didn't tell you was that I wanted to make it as easy as I could.  So easy that a mom with a baby on one hip and a toddler tugging at your skirts can make it.  Now, can you enjoy it?  That's up to the babies!

Speaking of which, as I was typing that first sentence, Beatrice woke up from her nap.  Intermission already?  I've only had 1 sip!

Anyway, I splurged this month on 2 Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks to remember just how delicious they are.  But they're also pumped (literally) full of sugars- mostly HFCS I'm sure, and other goos that only Mr. Starbucks himself can ponder as he wrings his evil little hands.  "Good, good," he says, "I will have them all addicted, and they'll pay me buckets of money to pump them full of corn and chemicals!"  Almost as evil as Mr. Marlboro?  Maybe!

So, I decided to make one myself.  A friend sent me a recipe that had these ingredients:
Coffee, pumpkin flesh, maca, fresh milk, banana, pumpkin spice, vanilla, stevia, and salt


Some of that sounds awesome, some of that sounds weird (banana?  in my coffee!?), and then, what the heck is Maca?


But all that is too hard for the time crunched mom like me.  Maybe mine won't taste JUST like FiveBucks, but it will be delicious and you will LOVE to wake up to this beauty.


What You Need

My egg beater looks like this- only way cooler

• Delicious home brewed coffee of your choice.  I use a french press and love it, but do what you gotta.
• Fresh Whipped Cream. (Raw if you can, non-UHP if you can't)  Seriously, like 1/3 cup cream per cup of coffee.  I whipped it by hand this morning with my brand new egg beater that I found at goodwill for a buck!   I'll take a picture next time I have 2 hands that aren't filled with delicious coffee and a baby.
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Cloves
• Ground Ginger
• Allspice
• About a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered honey

What You Do

• Get your extra large, empty coffee cup (you can order one from us like the one in my picture here) and put NOTHING in it (What I mean is don't pour your coffee in yet.  Leave it empty- this is actually hard for me, I am usually in such auto drive at this point in the morning!)
• In a medium sized bowl, whip your fresh cream with your own choice of whipping apparatus.  I like my new egg beater because it doesn't take forever, but it doesn't over-whip it like my stick blender does.  And it doesn't mean a lot of clean up either!
• When you've got soft peaks, add a spoonful to the bottom of your coffee cup, along with half of your spices.  You can add as much or as little as you'd like of each to your own taste.  My only suggestion is to add MORE ginger than you think you want, and only a very, very small amount of the ground cloves.  Like 1/4 teaspoon or less.  Just a sprinkle really.
• Add coffee to about 3/4 of the cup, while stirring in that whipped cream.  Then keep adding whipped cream a tablespoon at a time, stirring in between each until there are no chunky spots but only smooth creamy goodness.  Reserve about 3-4 tablespoons of Whipped Cream.
• Top your coffee with the reserved whipped cream, sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and then drizzle honey off a spoon onto the top of your coffee.  About half way through your spoon drizzling, stick the spoon down the side of your coffee and let it sit there without stirring (yet).  If you like sweeter coffee, add 2 tablespoons, or 3, I don't care!  But honey, use HONEY!  This is the key to making it deliciously sweet like Starbucks without it being uber-nasty-sticky-coat-your-mouth sweet from HFCS.  

Maybe I'll try adding a little bit of mashed pumpkin next time I have some laying around (which will be Monday because it's on my meal plan for dinner that day) but since most people don't want to get up in time to fresh roast a pumpkin for their coffee, I'm leaving it out of my recipe.  Having the spices plus honey does enough for this girl!

Oh, and vanilla?  I've tried making the coffee with vanilla this month, and it didn't seem right.  Maybe I was adding too much?  I'm not sure.  But I'd like to try adding it again, but instead of putting it in the coffee, whipping it into the cream.  This is my first time using whipped cream instead of just fresh liquid cream, so there's always room for improvement.

Have any suggestions?  Questions?  Let me know!  And be sure to enter our 1500 giveaway over here.  And if you ask real nice, maybe Joey'll upgrade you to a pumpkin mug just for fun!

linking back to

Make It! - Plaster Sculpture

It mentions in our tagline that I'm an artist, but I'm sure most of you are like, "sure buddy, so where's the art?" Well, here is a little taste:

Short of some sanding and staining this plaster sculpture is essentially finished. Technically this piece is an example to show to my students which I teach art to through a local homeschooling cooperative but I am so pleased with the final result that I may make a mold of it for a future ceramic installation.

This month rather than creating work (which I love) I think that my primary "make it" has more to do with instilling a sense of beauty and creative expression in my students. Currently I am teaching Introductory Ceramic Handbuilding to a group of 15 elementary aged students as well as Art Design and Fabrication Fundementals to a class of middle-high school students. In early November I will also be taking on a brief 3 week workshop with 20 students elementary-high school.

I love teaching.

Even more I love teaching art.

Even, even more I love teaching art to kids.

With that in mind, any locals who are interested, I offer semester long and workshop length classes to students ranging in age from 5-adult. I can either go to a location (such as the case with the current co-ops) or I also offer classes out of my studio which is equipped with a wheel, a kiln, sundry handbuilding/carving/shaping tools and of course, the requisite studio dachshund.

While the focus of my passion (and fine arts degree) is ceramics (handbuilding, throwing and moldmaking) I also offer multi-media concept design and fabrication classes from beginner-advanced.

For those that want something less intense, with less committment I also have a ton (literally) of molds which are available for "paint your own pottery" type sessions/parties.

I offer a 10% discount to fellow Catholics as well as donate an additional 10% to charity, for those that are interested.

Finally, one "make it" that Britt and I have been discussing lately is to actually put together a more legit website for me, so stay tuned for that, which will give more images and access to my work as well as provide more details regarding my workshops.

Make It!- Making Room for the Rosary

As you may already know, we are a Catholic family. And today, October 7th, is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

It's also my dear sister's birthday.  Happy birthday, Genevieve!  I love you!

I am not nearly as devoted to the Rosary as I want to be, or as I should be.  But recently, I rearranged my house.  I do this pretty often, actually.  Maybe every month or so a room will be completely re-done, or partially at least.  So this is my "Make It" for today, even though technically I did this a few weeks back. 

Our Family Shrine, with Tryptic by Gwyneth Holsten

Make room, then Make A Room, for Jesus and Mary.

Joey and I have always had a small family shrine.  When we were engaged, Joey found a beautiful sofa table at a thrift store, then he ordered a Prie Dieu (or kneeler), and a Resin Crucifix. When we got married we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment.  There, our Family Shrine lived in our master bedroom. Since Joey lived by himself for several months before we got married, when I moved in, I basically filled the second bedroom with boxes from my apartment that I never got around to going through until we moved into our house. So the shrine stayed in the bedroom.  It was seriously dusty- both because it was under the air conditioner vent and because it was never used.  When we prayed together, we either did it on the couch in the living room, or anywhere else.  There was too much visual clutter and not enough space to properly use our beautiful little shrine.

a view from the kitchen door

Then, when I was 8 months pregnant with Charlotte, we bought and moved into our current home.  We set up the shrine in a prominent corner of the living room- and basically forgot about it.   I often prayed my rosary while rocking the baby to sleep, and Joey prayed his while riding the commuter train into class downtown, and when we did get the chance to pray together, it was often while we were lying in bed just before falling asleep- or more often, WHILE we fell asleep.

But I've become more and more convinced that it is more important, especially as Charlotte gets older, to pray our family rosary together, awake, and in a special place.  So I made one.

Tryptic by Gwyneth Holsten, Family Bible, our rosaries (Charlotte's is the prettiest don't you think?), Holy Water, a small Bible for study, and our Relic of St. Roch (not pictured are the statues of St. Roch and Our Lady of Victory)

In our house, we have a small dining room off of our kitchen.  We also have 2 "living rooms"- one in the front of the house connected to the dining room, and the other on the back of the house connected to the kitchen and garage.  I've made the back living room into a toy/play room, which has made my life so much easier!   All the toys have a place- in THAT room!  But the front room has been re-purposed a million times.  And that's where the shrine was.

So instead of having a tiny, squishy dining room and a useless living room, I switched them- partly.  I put the table on one side of the living room with a coffee area on the other side (2 comfy chairs and a table) and the loveseat, shrine and a bookcase in the dining room- now "sitting and praying" room.  The loveseat faces the shrine.  This is amazing!  Now, every time I sit down to nurse or anything else, there's Jesus, in my face!  I haven't failed to pray the rosary yet this month, and even better, Charlotte is reminding me when I do forget.  Yesterday, she brought me my rosary and asked to pray.  I love having that little Holy Minute (or 20) with her and Beatrice in the middle of the day or, like today, after dinner with Daddy too!

View from the new dining room into the old one

So, I made myself a space in my home for prayer, and I'd like to challenge you to do the same.  Not just a space in your schedule, because we all know how ever changing those can be when you have small children, and not just a place in your pocket where you forget about it until you wash your clothes, but in your home for you to share with your children and spouse, and anybody else who may be visiting.  Mother Teresa said "The family that prays together stays together, and if they stay together they will love one another as God has loved each one of them. And works of love are always works of peace." And our own Bishop Conley this week recounted the story of a friend who owed his marriage to praying the rosary together every day. 

From my coffee chair

So whether you pray the Rosary, which is a beautiful scriptural based method of meditative prayer, or some other form of prayer and meditation, make room for it in your life both spiritually and actually.

Good Catholic art (again, by Gwyneth) and a little Catholic Library round it all out.

Party Recap- Homemade Crackers

So my attempt to not spend any money on this party didn't work out so good.  But I made a really good attempt.  And my favorite success was my homemade crackers!  I found a really good recipe here, and I tweaked it a bit for what I wanted to use it for- cheese and liver pate (which I didn't get a picture of because I forgot to put it out until after the party started).  So here's what I did-

Homemade Sweet Rosemary Crumble Crackers

2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. Real Salt or kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
8-10 Tbs. butter
¼ c. water
¼ tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. honey
salt and crushed rosemary for topping
Preheat the oven to 410.

Add the dry ingredients with the spices to your food processor and pulse a few times to mix, then add the butter and process until it forms a crumb.  (If you don't have a food processor, use 2 table knives or a pastry knife to incorporate the butter to a crumb) Mix water with honey and vanilla only as long as it takes to make a dough.

Then I tried two different methods to bake them.  First, I used a pizza stone.  Actually, I used an old kiln shelf that was broken, which is made from a similar clay that commercial stones are made from.  (More on this later) I rolled the dough nice and thin out on the floured stone directly while the oven was pre-heating.  Then, using a pizza cutter, I made cuts to form square crackers.  This made extremely deliciously crispy, delicate crackers.  EXCEPTIONAL!  But there were 2 problems.  First, your stone has to be completely dry or they will stick! Mine did, and I had to let it cool and dry over night in order to get the offending crackers off. Second, if you only have 1 stone, doing the second batch can be a problem.  I perfected the technique last night, but for Monday, i had to use a cookie sheet for the rest of the crackers.  A cookie sheet gives you slightly less crispy and more doughy crackers- they have less "crunch" and more "munch".  still good, and probably ideal for something like hummus.  again, i rolled the dough out directly on the floured sheet, but couldn't get it as thin because of the sides of the cookie sheet being in the way.

To reuse your stone, you have to be super careful.  First, using a metal pancake flipper, remove the crackers a few at a time to a waiting cooling area.  the carefully remove the ROCKET HOT stone and rest it somewhere safe- I have tile counter tops and that worked nicely.  Slip the already rolled out dough onto the hot, hot stone with the spatula, and using the pizza cutter, quickly score it into cracker sized bits.  Then back in the oven  until they're crispy delicious.

I left out a time- that's because it depends on the thickness of your cracker, and the heat of the stone you're working on or the cookie sheet.  I found that with the cookie sheet, it took just about 10 minutes.  With the cold stone, it took a good 10 minutes as well, and with a hot stone it was more like 6-8 minutes.  It might take longer for your, or less time, so I recommend letting them cook for 5 minutes undisturbed, and then checking on them every minute or so until you figure out how long it will take for your oven and baking apparatus.

On Pizza Stones

I've never owned a pizza stone, but always coveted them.  I was seconds away from buying one a few months back, when he noticed it in the cart and chastised me- "you know I can make that, right?"  It's true, baking/pizza stones are nothing but bisqued clay (meaning they didn't get all the way to temperature and are still slightly porous) that is UN-glazed. 

Then Joey mentioned to me that he had a broken piece of kiln shelf (which is what your mugs and bowls get placed on in the kiln that gets heated up to 2300 degrees!)  That is the ULTIMATE pizza stone.  The kind of clay that it's made out of has such a high melting point that only an industrial kiln can even MAKE it (Joey, how hot does it fire to?  thousands of degrees, I assume. Joey: Yea, um. something like 3,200 I think).  So it's great at retaining heat.

So if you can find an old kiln shelf- broken ones work fine as long as they're a big enough piece, great!  Just make sure that you scrap all the old kiln wash off (which keeps glazes from sticking to it) and that any glaze spots that are on it have an "off gassing" point that is well beyond your oven. Most do, they usually fire to at least 1000 degrees.

If you don't have a ceramicist husband like me, you can also use unglazed ceramic quarry tiles often found at hardware stores.  You can also special order a hand made one through our Etsy Store.  Just because he never made one for me doesn't me he wouldn't for you!  And think, he could put your family name indented on the top so that all your bread comes out with your own personal signature!  How cool!

Finally, I'm going to be playing around with this recipe a lot in the next couple of days- I'm in love with it!  But Joey and I have pretty much cut grains out of our diets except for treats, so I'm going to try making almond flour and coconut flour crackers and see how that works out!

Next- Homemade Cocktail Sauce- it's so simple you'll scream for joy!

Linking back to GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday.

Half Way There

Today is September 15th, which marks the half way point for our Spending Free Month. (See our original post with our rules and such here.)  So I figured I'd give you an honest recap of how we've been doing, and what we want to do for the next 2 weeks!

What we've spent money on:
A case (30 lbs) of pasture based butter (as explained here)- $102.25
A new saw blade for Joey's rotary saw- $10.78
Parking downtown for the art museum (of which we're members)- $5.00
Dog Food (whoops!  we ran out on the second day of the challenge!) $35.66
An Emergency Safeway run for frozen pizzas and juice when I was in bed with Strep Throat- $32.50
A few things for my Sister-in-Law's housewarming party that we didn't know we needed- $35.80
A "new-to-us" electric pottery wheel for Joey's studio (as explained here)- $525.00

Brent Pottery Wheel (not ours)

Farmer's Market- $22 over 2 weeks
Groceries for the first half of the month- $84.08
A meal for a homeless man downtown- $8.64

Without the wheel, that totals $300.91. (with, it's $825.91

Yup, way WAY over our $0.00 goal!

(By the way, this does not include our monthly bills and expenses that we can't get away without paying, such as electricity, water, our raw milk share, etc,)

However, with the exception of the emergency Safeway run, my sister-in-law's party purchases, and the homeless man's meal, all the other purchases fell within the rules.  Joey couldn't build any more raised garden beds, his goal for this month, without a new blade for his saw, and the other items fall into the category of "stupid-and-prideful not to make" (I'm not going to let our dogs go hungry, or deal with the repercussions of dumpstered food for them, nor will I pass up the butter sale that only happens 3 times a year, or the wheel deal that we've been searching for for months just because of our blog).  But, in the attempt to be completely honest, I've laid it all out for you fair and square.


So what are we going to work on for the rest of the month?

Joey is still working on raised garden beds for our yard (we have HORRIBLE soil!) and will need to find both lumber and dirt/manure/compost to fill them with.

I need clothes.  Like WHOA!  I'm loosing weight from my pregnancy like I can't believe, and I don't fit in any of my clothes right now- just that weird in between stage.  But I have a sewing machine and decent skills, so I'm going to try my hand at something like this.

I still haven't gotten my hands on a yogurt maker... hint hint, Dyno-Mom!

mmmm.... looks good, right?

I'm throwing a fancy cocktail party for some friends at the end of the month (which was planned before the month long experiment began) and I will need to procure several items somehow- including h'or d'ouvres and drinks. I'm going to try my hand at making homemade crackers and bruschetta bread, as well as try to invent a few drinks with the liquor we have on hand (not much, I might add!).  I MAY make a purchase of 2 here, like a bottle of wine, but I'm going to try and do everything sans money if I can. Anybody have any good ideas?

Joey will be explaining his 1 week rule for his "found objects", as well as showing you how he's been using the things he's discovered on his night time city explorations.

And so much more!  But all in all, we're going to be trying even harder to keep to our original plan.  As the month progresses, it's gotten both harder and easier.  I am getting super comfortable with packing lunches and snacks for the road so we don't get caught with a cranky, hungry toddler or growling stomachs, but I need to work on remembering our water bottles.  More than once have we been caught racing home to get something to drink!  I've done pretty well with my No Dryer Challenge, but some unfortunately cold, wet weather over the last week has caused me to have to plug it back in for a few days.  Otherwise we'd be naked.  If I were better at checking the weather reports and planning laundry days accordingly, I think I could do a lot better.  Also, Joey and I have both lost about 5 pounds this month- which I think is at least in part due to the fact that we haven't gone out to eat once!  THIS is our weakest point.  Even though we always try to choose the most "real food" option out there (hello, Chipotle and Sazza Pizza, I love and miss you both!), we eat out WAY too often.  We just love it too much, I guess.  But it's starting to feel more like the special treat it should be at this point.  I can't wait until Joey and I get to go on a date in October!  I'm going to pick the best restaurant ever, and know that it will be only a once in a while treat from now on!

So keep watching, and we'll keep trying to amuse and inform you.  Hopefully we're not the only ones getting something out of this blog.... hello, anybody out there? ..... We'd love all your comments with your own sage advice and honest questions and will keep trying out new ways to make a month without money both fun and interesting!

***Taking part in GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursdays***

The Makings of an Artist

We're having quite the busy week here on the LAC home front, so please forgive our brief absence.  My cousin moved into town with her 2 young girls close in age to ours and we've been enjoying the play dates and dinners and trying to help them get moved in as easily as possible. 

 St. Charles Boremeo by Gwyneth Holsten was commissioned by us for our daughter Charlotte

We also got to have dinner with our wonderful friend, Gwyneth, to talk about art and Christmas presents!  Gwyneth Holsten is probably the most talented person I know, and she's made art for both our family and our friend's for quite awhile. We're hoping to start a local artist's cooperative with both her and Mark Thomason, another family friend/artist, and maybe a few others.

St Joan- Painting on Canvas by Mark Thomason

But, just so you don't think we've abandoned ship....

We spent money.

Wait, what?  What did I just say?  We broke a rule!  Yep, we did.  Well, actually, we didn't exactly.  An unwritten rule that Joey and I agreed on at the beginning of the month was that if we found something that we've been looking for at an unbelievably low price, that it would be stupid and prideful to pass up that opportunity just for the sake of the "experiment".  Specifically, we've been looking for a new wheel for Joey's studio because his has been unbalanced since we bought it 2 years ago, and we don't have the equipment or the mechanical aptitude to fix it ourselves- which leaves us only the option to get it professionally centered, and we haven't found anybody in the area willing or able to do that for us without great effort or expense.  So we decided to look for a totally mechanical wheel (instead of the kick wheel that he currently has).  With a centered wheel, Joey should be able to throw several pieces a day, which should amount to money in our pockets by the end of the month if we plan things right. 

Apothecary Jars by Joey

But really, since it was a business expense, does that really count?  :)

So hopefully in the next few weeks, Joey's Etsy store will stop making that annoying cricket chirping sound and get filled with beautiful mugs and bowls and the like in order to help us on our journey towards true sustainability.

The 25 (across the) Yard Dash

It was overcast this morning when I woke up.

This wouldn't mean much, except we live in Colorado where we get 300 some odd days of sun a year.  When I lived in Virginia, I hated overcast days, but now I love them.  Except for one thing: Laundry.

One of my personal challenges for this month is to never use the dryer.  I got an umbrella dryer from Lowes a couple weeks back, and I've been trying to use it as much as possible, especially since my Joey occasionally needs to use the dryer's 220 outlet to run his kiln.

Did I forget to mention, Joey's a ceramic artist?  Here's his Etsy store (currently all but empty, but that should change soon).  But we'll talk more about that later.

Anyway, back to the skies. 

We use cloth diapers for both our babies, and need to wash them about twice a week.  I usually do Mondays and Thusdays because that means no weekend washing!  But I didn't get them in last night.  Also, I'd gotten a little backed up with our own clothes, which can be problematic.  No diapers and no clothes can lead to a very interesting situation.

So I hung our first load at 8:30 am, under grey skies and a load full of hope.  Soon enough the skies broke and out came the sun! Hooray!

Then, I hung a second load alongside around 10.  Full lines and full sun.  Perfect.

Then, right around nap time, I heard the first rumble.  We've had a bunch of fake storms around here, where it threatens and doesn't follow through, so I waited-probably a bit too long.  And then I had to run!

25 yard dash number one.

I went and hung it all back up around 5, and the shortly after dinner, the skies opened again.  This time the dash was a little wetter.

I was going to hang them up for overnight, but life just didn't get me there.  Overall, I got 2 1/2 loads dried in the semi-sun today.  Free, exilerating, and calorie-burning!  I can't wait to see how this helps our electric bill.

By the way, if you want a great tutorial on hanging your laundry, head over to Melissa the Dyno-Mom's blog here.

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Stay tuned for Joey's heroing tale of his dumpster diving expedition in tomorrow's blog!  You'll never guess what he came home with that I actually love!
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August 31st

Today was our last day to spend.  So to celebrate, we went to the art gallery as a family, went out for lunch, and bought wine for our goddaughter's birthday party.  It was a wonderful day, and a great way to launch our month of spendlessness!