ChristyNelson.net: January Craft Challenge Reminders

ChristyNelson.net: January Craft Challenge Reminders

Geography Jane, originally uploaded by Chimera Creation.

This is my entry into Christy's Craft Challenge! As Christy puts it in her blog- Materials to be used for the challenge:

green paper
fabric
brads
rubber bands
embroidery floss

You must use at least a little bit of each of the supplies provided. Other than that, you are pretty much free to create whatever you want!

So that's what I did! It was hard to decide what to make, I had quite a few ideas rolling around in my noggin. I decided to make a doll type thing, but even that took some narrowing down. In the end I made Geography Jane, her body is hand sewn, I crocheted her legs and eyelashes and her hair is differently dyed shades of wool and alpaca out of my spinning stash. She has brad and paper earrings. This was a lot of fun and I've already purchased next month's craft challenge so I can do it again!

Housekeeping

I've been doing stuff with Elsa, museum outside inside stuff. Currently she's saying, "Where's the bug mommy?" "Look in room." "Dudde" "Where's bug? Mommy!" I don't even know what she's talking about.
Anyways, I've also been joining artfire (previous post) and today, 1000Markets, which looks pretty freakin cool. I wanted to post a master list mainly for my own reference, but feel free to click away.
WHERE AM I?

• http://twitter.com/ChimeraCrochet
• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646651751
• http://www.myspace.com/perkychipmunk
• http://www.youtube.com/perkychipmunk
• http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/ChimeraCreation
• http://www.indiepublic.com/profile/Lisa72
• http://www.ravelry.com/people/ChimeraCrochet
• http://chimeracreation.artfire.com/
• http://www.1000markets.com/shops/chimeracreation
• http://www.chimeracrochet.etsy.com/
• http://www.chimeracreation.etsy.com/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimeracreation/

So I'm Giving Artfire A Try

I figured I'd give the free account a try. I mean, it is free. I have two pills listed there, and I'm debating making it all pills all the time. ChimeraCrochet's Pharmacy, as it were. Speaking of pills, I better make some more, because I have a feeling I'm going to sell out soon. SO either snap up what I have on Artfire (click above) or shimmy over to ChimeraCrochet (link is over there to the lower right) because I just sold another one overnight.

Naughty Prescription For Love

Naughty Prescription For Love, originally uploaded by Chimera Creation.

New in my shop @ http://chimeracrochet.etsy.com are some Prescription For Love Amigurumi Pills. I have a few different kinds listed. They would make a perfect gift for Valentine's Day!

Being Present is a Present to Yourself

From: "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle
Why should we be addicted to thinking?
"Because you are identified with it, which means that you derive your sense of self from the content and activity of your mind. Because you believe that you would cease to be if you stopped thinking. As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are, based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego. It consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.

To the ego, the present moment hardly exists. Only past and future are considered important. This total reversal of the truth accounts for the fact that in the ego mode the mind is so dysfunctional. It is always concerned with keeping the past alive, because without it -- who are you? It constantly projects itself into the future to ensure its continued survival and to seek some kind of release or fulfillment there. It says: "One day, when this, that, or the other happens, I am going to be okay, happy, at peace." Even when the ego seems to be concerned with the present, it is not the present that it sees: It mispercieves it completely because it looks at it through the eyes of the past. Or it reduces the present to a means to an end, an end that always lies in the mind-projected future. Observe your mind and you'll see that this is how it works. The present moment holds the key to liberation."

How true, especially if you give that last part a try. Really step back and observe the mind as it oscillates between past and future but never settles on the now. It's amazing and disturbing at the same time. Reading Tolle is part of my voluntary simplicity movement where I am working towards not only decluttering my home, but also my mind! Another interesting this is my friend Amy is also posting on this very subject, as though we were thinking along these same lines recently. You should go give it a read.

Elsa's First Two Years, By Month

Cool Cool

nataliedee.com

Top Ten Change Ideas

The email I got:

We're excited to let you know that this morning we opened voting for the final round of the Ideas for Change in America competition at www.change.org/ideas.

As you may know, we launched the competition back in November with MySpace and more than 50 nonprofit partners in response to Barack Obama's call for citizen involvement in government. First round voting ended on December 31, and the top rated ideas from a diverse range of 7,783 submissions have qualified for the final round.

The final round of voting ends on January 15, and the following day we are co-hosting an event at the National Press Club with the Case Foundation to announce the top 10 rated ideas and present them to the Obama administration. We will then launch a national campaign in coordination with our nonprofit partners to ensure that each idea gets the full consideration of the administration and 111th Congress.

To select your "Top 10 Ideas for America," go to www.change.org/ideas and become a part of the people-powered movement leading the call for change in America.

---

Call To Action

This coming Monday, January 5, is the deadline for comments to the CPSC. The CPSC has asked for comments regarding component testing and natural materials exemptions! This is our chance to speak directly to the CPSC and push them to include these important additions in the CPSIA/provide your personal feedback on anything that hasn't been touched on. Here is the link to the CPSC forms.

More links and comments in the etsy storque.

The First Paragraph

The world is profoundly changing, that much seems clear. We have entered a time of great uncertainty that extends from local to global scale. We are forced by pressing circumstances to ask difficult questions about the way we live our lives: Will my present way of life still be workable when my children grow up? How might their lives, and my own, be different? Am I satisfied with my work? Does my work contribute to the well-being of others--or is it just a source of income? How much income do I really require? Require for what? How much of my consumption adds to the clutter and complexity of my life rather than to my satisfaction? How does my level and pattern of consumption affect the other people and the environment? Is there an alternative way of living that is more sustainable in an era of scarcity? Do I have the flexibility to adapt to a period of prolonged energy shortage and economic depression? In the face of scarcity, is there an alternative way of living that fosters cooperation and community rather than cutthroat competition and social fragmentation? Are there small changes that I could make in my own life that, with many others making similar changes, would result in a large difference in the well-being of others? What are my responsibilities to the other members of the human family who are living in grinding poverty? Am I missing much of the richness of life by being preoccupied with the search for social status and consumer goods? What is my purpose in life? How am I to take charge of my own life?
--The first paragraph of Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin. It gives you quite a bit to think about right off, doesn't it?

Happy Birthday Elsa!

She turned two on December 28th.

Did Doing Will Do!

Just read: Scaling Down by Judi Culbertson; Choosing Simplicity by Linda Pierce and 365 Simple Reminders by Elaine St. James.
Reading: Your Money or Your Life by Dominguez and Robin; Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin and Paganism by Higginbotham.
Up Next To Get: Follow Your Bliss by Sparrow and Zina and To Have or To Be? by Erich Fromm; also some books by Eckhart Tolle
Just Crocheted: A pigtail hat for Leith and a kitchen washrag for Josh.
Am Crocheting: Nothing
Want to Crochet: Not sure, really just feel 'out of it' craft wise.

Was thinking about: The nature of friendships and my difficulty obtaining and sustaing them.
Am thinking about: Cleaning my office, what I can get rid of next. The Gator Bowl
Need to think about: What's next?