.tea.

this is the delicious tea i just made.

.object.

i have been aware of the power of objects for quite some time. at least, the power they have over me. i have collected objects for pretty much as long as i can remember. when i was little, it was always rocks and shells. my family used to go camping at the same campground many times each summer. my sisters, our friends and i would spend so much time down at the water catching minnows and frogs, putting them in buckets for a while, then letting them go again. i did this for so much of my time there that on the drive home and all that day whenever i closed my eyes i saw minnows dancing, swimming. i loved this. like i could take a bit of that place home with me. my physical attempt was in the rocks and shells. especially rocks. i had so many. i think my mom got a big fed up with my attempts at amassing a collection. i just loved them.

i still feel the same way about objects. especially vintage or antique. the story they tell. with the rocks, it was my own story and the story of my favorite place. with vintage objects it's the story of the object's use, the people who valued it (or didn't), the places it's been.

i did not intend to go on like this. my original goal was to tell you how i felt about objects and the way the influence an experience. in this case, my new tea kettle (as opposed to my ugly, ucky old one), my beautiful double walled glass tumbler and the super yummy tea that i just made.

also, i got these books. i can't wait to expand my knowledge on preserving and gardening with the intention of eating and doing as much as i can with my own hands. here's to more jam and preserves and, this year i'm determined, pickling!

brittany

i always feel compelled to sing my name on these long posts...

.melting.

chelsea loves wendell berry. she introduced him to me and i, too, love him now. here is a poem of his to which she linked me a while ago:

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

this pushes back the cynical thoughts that i collect over the days, the weeks. brings back the hope on which i have to live if i am ever to do anything, to be anything, worth doing and being. it makes me feel like i will be able to fall asleep before 2:30 tonight.

the image is mine from the vegetable plot adventure

.oops.

hello again!

wow, that way-too-long blogging/flickr break was unexpected. i was still reading lots of blogs and leaving comments, but for reasons still unknown to me, i clearly was not posting. needless to say, i have missed this space and those of you who are kind enough to come visit me. with school starting on monday, i'll be posting a lot about what i'm working on and be more productive in general, so yay for that! while i greatly enjoy/need taking this break, i also get distressed about slacking.

news bulletin:

} i have been nominated by the head of my department (crafts) at school to apply for the windgate fellowship provided by the center for craft, creativity and design. basically, i have to write a proposal outlining what i will do with the money ($15,000) within 18 months of my graduation in may. i have just over two weeks left to write the proposal and i think i have a pretty good grasp on the bulk of it. the hardest part is simply deciding, and fairly definitively, on what the heck i want to do when i graduate! to give myself room for exploration, i'm focusing my grant money on building up studio supplies (the more portable or expensive ones, considering we'd like to move across the country) and attending fiber and general craft conferences, in order to familiarize myself even more with current craft issues and with the people in my field. i am also planning to do a lot of research that i think will inform my work (ooooh, i think i'll use that sentence in my proposal, sounds good, haha!). i'm still working this part out.... mostly research on entrepreneurship (taking classes if i can find relative ones) and issues that i would like to incorporate (i think my next focus will be on food systems).

} i had a really great christmas!! i took 5 whole days off work to go home and see my family. we had lots of fun and ate so very much good food. since my mom is awesome, i got a bunch of handmade gifts (including french press knit slippers!!). oh, and for new year's eve, eric and i headed out to chelsea's place in ypsilanti for the night. it was so nice to have a chill, but super-fun night. i almost never do anything exciting for new year's.... we played a lot of catchphrase and made fun of pop culture. is there anything better? oh yeah, bree made amazing chili. even better.

} speaking of chelsea (seriously go visit her blog, she has wonderful writing), we're talking about starting a weekly post together, which will be so much fun. hooray for collaboration!

} i'm really excited about the letterpress class i'm taking this semester. hooray!!

i suppose i'll leave you with these things. i promise i will not leave again, it made me quite sad. i missed you guys!

.rice.

i like this pattern. i will soon do a full post about my final project in pattern design - it was one that i really loved and put a lot of thought to and am pretty passionate about - but for now, this will have to do.

rice. in its plant form.

p.s. i love the faunts.

.thought.

Ok, so, you know that moment

that very moment when the city lights turn on

or the highway lights

at that threshold between day and night

the transition

well, today i witnessed that moment. i always have thought of that moment as a treat. there's no way i can plan it. i am just in that place in that time. i was walking to the woodshop at school and when i walked under part of the kresge building, just as i walked underneath it, the lights turned on above my head. do other people notice these things? they must...

it's weird, but i smiled to myself.

the more i think about it and the more i talk to people about it, the more nervous i am to graduate and to actually leave ccs. yeah, i'm really really mad at the school. they've screwed a lot of things up for us students this year, but that's a different story. and really, an old, tired one.

so, the reason i'm nervous to leave is this: community. if you read here or if you know me in "real life" (or whatever you want to call it) you know how i feel about this word and what it means. having a community around me, whether it is online or in "real life", is so so important. ccs is the best community i have. sometimes i forget, like when people trash the fiber studio. but, when i walk around and see art hanging from trees or am surprised when i walk into the walter b. (totally forgot today was dec. graduation) and see art all over the place and recognize a photograph by my friend... i really feel it. my guess is that there's nothing quite like being a student in a small, like-minded (for the most part) school.

i just really love walking around on an errand, but being continually sidetracked. i had to stop in the yamasaki atrium to study the ceramics on display from a critique. just being in a place where so many people make art is such a good feeling...

how do you get that after school?

my plan is to work there.

.monday.

today is my last session of both pattern design and woodworking.