~eat love not fear~

The thing I love most about my work as a librarian is connecting people and resources: it's sort of thrilling, like matchmaking. So when Jenny the Lokel Yokel wanted me to come and celebrate her new solar clothes dryer and share the recipe for homemade laundry soap, I was all for it in the spirit of sharing good ideas that help families be healthy and save the planet.

She blogged about it here. And in the post, you can see that I am wearing this nifty blue tee shirt (Anne Klein, thrifted for $2.99, even more awesome). I wanted to give you some closer-ups of it because it is so fab. It's a collaborative effort between the Lokel Yokel and the CraftingMamaLibrarian: designed and conceived together. She silk-screened it with a low-tech method she saw on YouTube that makes me think of the 80s show MacGyver, if he had been into craftyness---using an embroidery hoop and Mod Podge! So thank you, Jenny, the most excellent MacGyver of crafting!

Eat Love Not Fear. The slogan makes me think of my happy chickens who feel the warm sunshine on their feathers, who nibble up a fat worm, chase after a delicious moth, and scratch up the compost. It's about choosing foods that were raised with love and sunshine and rain, knowing your farmer, knowing your chickens.

If Jenny goes into mass production, I will let you know! Or you could friend The Birchwood Motel on Facebook!

Greening Your Laundry

new A-line skirt

with gorgeous linen Japanese fabric from Alewives

Seems like the word is getting round to bloggers in Maine about the goodness of homemade laundry soap. You may have read it here first, but look who else is on the homemade kick! And some laundry sweetness, as well as a CraftingMama shout-out, is here also on the blog of Little Bits and Bobbin (if you need to know how much I love this gal, check this post out. swoon.)

cleaning products:

homemade scouring powder and toilet-cleaning supplies

I am also pleased to tell you that on June 23rd, Wednesday @ 11 a.m., I will be giving a demo/talk about greening your laundry at the Birchwood Motel in Camden, ME. Read this post about how Jenny and Eric are making green choices for their local business: making their own laundry soap and installing a gorgeous new laundry line is just a start. Think about how awesome it would be to sleep on sun-dried sheets, laundered without chemicals, the next time you stay in a motel! The workshop is free and participants will go home with a sample (and laundry soap recipe), as well as resources about alternatives to chemicals in our homes.

To register, Friend/Like the Birchwood Motel on Facebook and leave your RSVP there!
New PJ pants around here. In the photo above, Sylvan models his new pair in a fabric called Hedgehog Love (also from Alewives). What is not to love about THAT? The sad news is that I underbought fabric for these, which means that I am not readily embracing the true size of this boy who was/is my baby.

For the extra long-leggedy one, Jonas, I knew that I needed quantity. I used a pattern from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross, Pajamas for Everyone, and I made the ADULT size Small. I thought, Oh Ho, I can just whack off a bunch of length and they'll fit him fine. Well, I am here to tell you that I did not do any chopping of any length. My 11 year-old boy who was/is my baby is also really the size of a small adult (in height, anyway). Wow.