Sunday Fun

I've been kinda discouraged as of late,personally,and just as a citizen overall.I don't feel inspired to do much,my energy is reallllly low.

Which means it's time for a little fun.A diversion or two,just to recharge.Sooo,let's see what I can pull out of my bag o'tricks on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Kat Von D is a tattoo artist,currently featured on the TLC series Miami Ink on the TeeVee. Kat is cool,I LOVE her work.Tattoo artists don't get enough credit for being artists in their own right,and what's remarkable about Kat is that she's only in her early 20's,she's not even reached a peak in her development as an artist yet.And she's better than alot of the men in this male dominated field. Her specialty is portraits and pin up girls.I am SO getting one of her t-shirts.Click through her site to the gallery pages,it's worth a few minutes of your time.

As I've mentioned before,we've been in the process of remodelling our house for the better part of the last 7 yrs,and my job has mostly been clean up,but I also have done most of the interior re-designing and decorating.Which for me means paint and painting techniques.Jan Dressler Stencils are expensive,but the large stencil kits for murals are FANTASTIC.Her dead tree catalog is also full of ideas if you're looking to paint a room.Her techniques are almost idiot proof,anyone who can hold a paintbrush or a rag can do them.

Then there's looking to the heavens for inspiration.

Aric McBay's site,In the Wake, looks at life if the grid were to crash,ala a post industrial/technological /post peak oil crash. The site is all about living off the grid,basic survival,practical stuff.Yeah it's a tad"radical"(or alot,depending on how you define "radical"),but practical info is practical info.Ya never know when such things will come in handy.Whether you agree with the politics/philosophy or not,this site is impeccably researched.A couple years ago I had some correspondance with Aric,he's one of the good guys.

One Spirit is a sponsorship program I have been part of for several years now(it used to be called Spirit Rising).The focus of this organization is Lakota families,especially children, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southern South Dakota,our poorest citizens who have been isolated and forgotten.My personal experience has been wonderful,I've become quite close to my sponsored child's mom over the years,though we've never met in person.She's a love-and one of the bravest people I know.You send no money(though there are organizations within One Spirit that do take cash for things like heating oil in winter and other projects),you're matched to a child,and you send them stuff a few times a year.I made a commitment to sponsor a child thru high school,it's a long term thing to me.If the program seems like it's your cuppa tea and you have questions,please feel free to email me(we also need to discuss reality on the rez and certain key points of cultural respect in the items you choose to send a sponsored child or family) at gardenspirit1 at hotmail dot com. Please consider helping,you'll be doing a lot of good,even if you can only do a little.This is really great bunch of volunteers doing really good work in an area with very trying circumstances.

Seeds of Change is an organic gardening supply site I like alot.They have tons of varieties of heirloom seeds,some varieties having a history going back to the beginnings of America and earlier.It's amazing how much diversity there is just in vegetables,stuff we never see in supermarkets.Seed Savers Exchange is another way cool resource too.I've spent many an afternoon lost in the dead tree version of their catalog.I've found varieties my great grandparents used to grow on their farm when I was but a wee child.

Happy Sunday All.