Crafty painterdoula

Moving, gardening, homeschooling and more.

2012-01-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

So we finally left our house and moved into a rental. I love the fact that it is walking distance from the fine arts academy and the garden, although it was hard to move and fit everything in our rental.
On the homeschooling front, Leo has started gymnastics, which is great because he has so much energy. Unfortunately, he twisted and hurt his ankle the first day. It was ok by the following week, but it was still sore. Latin is going well and we have some projects for February for African american month.

Gardening continues to give me so much peace. It feels so nice to listen to the birds and be outside tending to the garden.

Homeschooling a 13 yr old

2011-10-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

This year Leo has decided to take Latin. At first I wondered if he would meet the challenge of this class. You see, we've been unschooling him since day one and this is one if his first classes where homework and tests are expected of him. I am thrilled to say that he is doing well in this class and we don't have to fight with him to do the work. As an unschooler, I have had many moments where I wondered if we were doing the right thing. Reading and picking the brains of unschoolers that have grown kids really helped along the way and it's exciting to experience the stuff I have read about with homeschooling. He is also continuing to work on math through the Life of Fred book(fractions). I like this math book because not only does it help with learning math, but it helps with reading and introduces other subjects like history. As for his reading, he is into the Manga series. Still loves to build with legos.

More challenges

2011-10-21T10:09:00.000-07:00

So the last time I wrote, we were thinking of how we can eat more local without buying food that has been shipped from far away. Well, life continues to challenge us and it's been a bit hard to just focus on growing food with continually dealing with our living situation. We might be moving soon, due to the fact that we can't afford this house anymore and haven't been able to afford it for quite a few years. This has made me really think about what is important in our lives. It brings me comfort in thinking that I don't really need too much stuff and as long as I have a few pots to grow food in, things will be fine. Not to mention that I have a wonderful family which makes life pretty nice.

Anyway, back to gardening. Since I don't know if we will be here in this house for much longer, I have planted some stuff in pots. My Aji Amarillo(peruvian pepper) is doing great. The plan is to let one of the peppers stay on the plant so as to collect the seeds for next year. Another pot has a heirloom purple broccoli plant, that also has stinging nettle growing under it. Stinging nettle is a part of my diet in the winter, so this is exciting to me. I use it for tea or soups. This plant is great to eat because it has lots of nutrients in it including iron, calcium, magnesium and so on.

So our quest for free, fresh local food is still going strong. I might even pull some dandelions and see what I can make with it.

A challenge

2011-05-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well, today Leo and I were watching youtube videos about people who grow a lot of their own food. Specifically the "Path to Freedom" family in Pasadena and Novella Carpenter, author of "Farm City". We were truly inspired by these videos and Leo said that we should try eating from just what we grow for a week. Hmm, that sounds great but our diet would consist of Artichokes, peaches, onions, eggs, strawberries and some weeds. Somehow, I don't see us being fed on just that. Specially because Leo's appetite is quite large now that he is 13yrs old. The fact that this challenge is coming from him is motivating me to plant a lot more stuff. Stay tuned....

Homeschooling year 8

2011-05-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

What's Leo up to?

Leo isn't into gardening but I continue to talk to him about sustainability and why it's good to grow some food. Every now and then he'll help in the garden.

He's continuing to take Lego engineering classes.

Learning fractions through the "Life of Fred" series.

Learning guitar.

Playing license plate game to learn states and capitols.

Looking up some phrases in our sign language book.

Finished up the third book written by his friend Gwen.

Continuing studing ceramics with Lynn at the Fine arts academy.

Working on writing and grammer.

Leo is 13 yrs old now and he seems more motivated this year and interested in more challenging subjects(although he would never admit it). The last couple of years Leo has improved in his math, reading and writing skills a lot. It's fun to look at his past work and see the difference.

We used to play this game where he would phonetically write a word or phrase and we would try and guess what it said. We had fun with that game because the stuff we would come up with would make us laugh.

Juggling all the things I love to do

2011-01-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

So lately I've been trying to re-organize my time so that everyday I have time to do something for my homeschooling, businesses, and garden . I've never been the kind of person with a routine, so at times this can be challenging. I think my routine was not having a routine. My husband on the other hand thrives on his routine. He's done the exact same thing the first hour he is awake, probably for all his adult life. He gets up around 7am, makes his coffee and watches the sports highlights, then it's off to work. When I get up in the morning, I roll out of bed, and then its different every time. Sometimes I feed the chickens first, then eat breakfast, or eat breakfast, check email, then feed the chickens(which reminds me, I need to feed the chickens).

Synergia ropes course( Nadia is just 12yrs old)

2010-09-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

This ropes course was really challenging for Nadia. We camped out too in these adobe building which was fun.

Project old and new made by repurposing "trash."

2010-09-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Old and new projects made from found objects. Everything from, old tiles to toilet paper roles, containers, and broken toys. Repurposing can be cool.

Homeschooling through the years part two

2010-09-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

Halloween 2003, Our trip to Oregon and Leo's old homeschool friends from Marin County.

Homeschooling through the years

2010-09-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Nadia's old homeschool friends from Marin, in a recycled art class making a day of the dead altar.

We have been homeschooling for many years now. I think its been around ten years now. The other day I was trying to list all the field trips and experiences we've had starting with Nadia.

We've taken many trips to farms to learn about bee keeping, ice cream making and tasting, farm cheese tasting, strawberry picking, pumpkin picking, potato picking, bottle feeding calfs, learning about composting, and many other things.

My first recollection was of a farm where their main goal was how they could live their lives more sustainable. They had rabbits and used their poop for the garden. They sold some of their produce and herbs in town. This was the first time we had seen a cob oven too. There was an out door bedroom too. It was great seeing how much fun the kids had just being free to roam around and explore.

What's going on in your garden?

2010-09-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been kind of a crazy year for us here at the Raymer Ranch and I have been neglecting my garden. Since we don't know if we'll be here next year, I have let the chores in the garden go a bit. I didn't think there was much going on in the garden until I saw this gigantic monster green spider on the raspberry vine. Being the big wimp that I am, I jumped about ten feet in the air when I saw this critter. After regaining my composer, I decided to pull out the camera and snap a few photos of it. Anyway, anyone know the name of this spider?

Earthday celebrations around town

2010-04-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, Earthday is full of fun free activities this year. Here are some festivals that are being hosted by Glendora and Claremont California.

Earthday Festival in Glendora

This event takes place on Saturday, April 17th 2010 10am-3pm
It will start with a community bike ride through beautiful mountain views of the
San Gabriel Mountains. Afterwards there will be many vendors like The Fine Arts Academy which is an art studio out of an old historic church. They offer classes in everything from sewing to making mosaics, crocheting, and ceramics.
Another vendor that will be at the festival will be Lotus of Light. They are a wonderful place that offers massage, yoga classes and breastfeeding support. They will be having free demo classes(15 min.) at the festival.

The other fun festival will be in Claremont, California 10am-3pm
This event will be on Second St. and in the plaza near the Laemle Theatres.
Many vendors from the Green Market will be there selling things like homemade granola, fresh milled oats and grains, organic cotton, bamboo clothing and handmade soap.
I will be selling my handmade plastic crocheted art and some gardening signs with seed packets there.

Earthday with the EcoEtsy team

2010-03-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is from the EcoEtsy team blog. This is our second year of fundraising for a cause. If you are interested in knowing more about it, go to www.ecoetsy.blogspot.com

Earth Day is turning 40 years old on April 22nd.

In celebrating it's awesome birthday, Team Eco Etsy will be having some rocking parties to promote our mission of spreading eco-love and promoting the team.

First, we are going to repeat our successful event we had last year called "Green Share"

Green Share is an idea conceived by the members of the EcoEtsy Team in 2009. It is hope - it is our promise to spread the green idea within our own communities, all over the world. The idea is to pass on and share a gift of seeds to classrooms, local businesses, neighbors, friends and family. The gift can be anonymous or can help show your business or organization’s commitment to Eco-Friendly living.

Many EcoEtsy members will participate in Green Share, but anyone can participate really! The benefits of participating are numerous:

* All the materials you need to get started are free - just download and assemble. This makes a great classroom project, or something to do with your kids for Earth Day.

* Giving within your own community helps support change at the heart of where we live. Supporting our community has nothing but positive benefits - especially when green growing things are involved!

* Businesses and organizations can gift Green Share seed packets & planters as a way to get the word out about their own efforts.

At the top of this post is a sample of one of the awesome seed packets past co-leader Lolaness designed.

You can download this free template and others for print, or you can recycle any paper, like brown grocery bags, to make your own design like Rikkianne did. Either way, it's a great way to send a message to your community and share some eco-love.

Second, we would like 100% participation from Team Eco Etsy for the next event. We will be sponsoring a silent auction and donate the proceeds to charities in celebration of Earth Day.

Team Eco Etsy

2010-03-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

I have been part of an eco artist group called The Eco Etsy team. If you haven't heard of Etsy, it is a website where you can buy handmade stuff. There are thousands of artists with their own shop page and everything you can imagine. I get inspired just looking at peoples art work. Anyway, within this Etsy website there are many groups that have formed to support each other and network. Eco Etsy is a group of artists that re-purpose things to make art or somehow try and create things with the idea of being eco friendly in some way.

Crocheting with plastic

2010-02-11T19:51:00.000-08:00

Seeing how I've been wrapped up with my gardening, I didn't want to ignore my recycled art.(especially because this hobby brings in some cash) Recycled art is still one of my passions and it's fun talking to people at farmers markets about why I do it and the problems with the amount of plastic that is produced everyday. I do hope to run out of bags at some point but unfortunately that isn't going to happen any time soon. In fact, I joke with my kids about who I am going to will my collection of plastic bags to.

Crocheting with plastic bags has been an adventure because I'm never quite sure of how my project will come out. I know I should be writing down my pattern, but I do like the fact that each fish is a little bit different. My work is constantly evolving and my plan is to start making bigger more sculptural figures. Here is a few pictures of how I go about crocheting with plastic.

A year in the garden.

2010-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that in April it will be two years since my friends from "Claremont Food Not Lawns" came and helped me put in the garden.
I spent many months thinking about what kind of garden I wanted. I had decided that the lawn must go and a beautiful edible garden needed to take its place. My husband was a bit weary when I started talking about tearing out the entire lawn. I strategically gave him little bits of information like. "Did you know that there is a family in Pasadena that grows most of their own produce?" That saves a lot of money. Once my husband let me have free reign of the back, I knew I had to work fast. Naturally, I started to rip out the garden with just a shovel. This proved to be grueling work not to mention hard as hell. My husband being the nice person he is saw how hard it was for my wimpy arms to even break the sod and said he would help. The part that I took out was about one fifth of the lawn. It also took me about the same time as it took him to do the rest of the lawn. Men are so lucky that they have the upper body strength they do. As for me, I look like sponge bob trying to lift two marshmellows on a stick. Not impressive. So anyway, it just so happened that while we were taking the lawn out, I met a couple that had started a group called "Food not Lawns". When I went to a meeting and they said that one of their goals were to help people convert their lawns to gardens, I almost squeeled with happiness. Seeing how I was getting overwhelmed by all the planning and work that this would take, meeting these two was like hitting the lotto. I also met so many people that helped me know what and how to plant my garden. Two years later, the garden is still teaching me that this will always be a work in progress with me learning as I go. If you want to know more about "food not lawns", here's Claremonts link to it. www.claremontfoodnotlawns.com

There goes all my stuff!

2009-09-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I had my computer crash...again. That was the second computer I lost in about six months. My writings for a book I was thinking about are gone, not to mention tons of pictures and business stuff. So, I figure I'll just write all my ideas for my book here. Where I can't possibly lose it. I hope.

How I came about wanting to garden.

2009-09-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

So It's been a little over a year since we had the back lawn removed by "Food not Lawns" and I can't tell you how much pleasure this garden has given me.

This whole idea actually started when we lived in Marin County and I had heard of people growing food to eat. I thought this sounded like a lot of work and figured that this was just for the expert farmer. We lived in apartments most of my life so this never entered my mind. There was a fig tree that I have fond memories of, when we lived in an apartment in Hollywood when I was a kid. This is probably why I love figs to this day. When we finally rented a house, I tried growing watermelon. A bit ambitious come to think of it. When we moved back to Los Angeles, the idea stuck in my head. I started reading about how our food is produced and how many miles it usually travels to get to my plate. I had heard of a family in Pasadena who decided that growing a lawn was too much of a waste. They figured why not grow something edible if they are going to spend the water on it. This family now grows most, if not all of their produce in their backyard, and their backyard isn't even that big. They also make a living by selling some of their produce to local restaurants.
When I was little, I don't think I had ever seen anyone growing anything edible in their yards, so this was amazing to me. The idea of growing food in my backyard started sounding better the more I read about it.
Then we bought a house and I was excited to start a garden. I didn't know much about this so I started reading gardening books. I actually started with a drought tolerant garden in the front. My husband was not too sure he wanted me experimenting with our front yard at all. I have to admit it did take me years to establish this garden.

Etsy Upcycling contest

2007-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I have been busy crocheting more plastic for the Etsy contest. The contest consists of people making stuff out of items considered to be trash. It is overwhelming to look at pictures of the city dump and see thousands upon thousands of plastic bags. I have vowed to carry around my canvas bags to put groceries in and not collect anymore plastic bags. So far I have made some coin purses, fish, a horse, a tree and my latest, a skirt. All made from plastic bags. The skirt, a fish and the tree were my pieces for the etsy contest.

Fiber arts show

2006-11-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone, If you are interested in seeing what some of us freeform crocheters are doing, There is a Fiber Arts Show going on in Eagle Rock. It is at That Yarn Store on1578 Colorado Blvd. Los Angeles, 90041. I have my crocheted tree showing here. The show will run until Sunday November 18th. J~