May 31st, 2009
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i feel too busy, yet not productive. some days it feels like I can never get anything done, (should I say some months?)
my little man is not sleeping soundly at night and so I am very tired on top of it. walk around in a daze.
I did get out for a walk in the woods yesterday, alone. it felt really good. i must take the time to do it more. i can feel the well filling up slowly again, it’s felt a bit empty lately. I never worry about it too much when that happens. it’s just part of the process. I just wait for the excitement to come back and it always does. a project idea comes in and then I am unstoppable.
been cooking a lot. I like the Candle Cafe Cookbook. today for lunch, kale and red pepper slaw with tofu, which we make all the time. we’ve been having a lot of different salads, made with everything you can think of. my goal is to make salads out of every kind of vegetable.
so good.
the baby wakes.
p.s. have a gander at THIS mini trailer home (though not very portable).

May 28th, 2009
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this tiny house
article my secret to living with less
the hermitage
you’ve probably seen these ones already, tumbleweed.
coming unmoored.
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on a different note but related, are you a “wallet overstuffer”? I have been one for many years now. Here is a solution I am going to try as an experiment. the jimi. I’ll let you know how it goes.
here is an interview I did for PBS.

May 25th, 2009
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so little time to write these days. we are outside so much more. exploring. everything in the world is new. T experienced sand for the first time yesterday and it was life changing. he just sat and stared and ran it through his hands for twenty minutes with no signs of stopping. I think he would still be there if we hadn’t picked him up to take him home.
I have become totally obsessed with small living spaces. this is not new for me, just revisited every so often. In part as we have been paring down our worldly possessions for a while now. I aim to live as minimally as possible. there is a weight associated with owning and storing things, and I feel much lighter to let go of attachment. much lighter.
My husband and I have a dream of traveling around in a tiny camper for a year (this came from reading Emily Carr’s journals about her little grey elephant, a camper she used for writing and painting on location). this is yet to be a reality because in order to tow anything you need a car with a bigger engine (read: not fuel efficient), which kind of defeats the purpose for us. The environment is a factor in living as a nomad for a time. So we wait until something a bit greener emerges. Here is my dream pad, a Tonke camper from Holland (sadly it is too pricey and requires a big truck bed):




we have looked at every possible configuration and not found any environmentally friendly/affordable option. either there are construction problems, (offgassing, made with cheap materials), or they are too heavy to tow with a lighter vehicle.
so it is still a dream. but it’s a nice dream to have.
I’ve also been reading some interesting stuff about Berber houses in Morocco and Algeria. I love that each part of their small houses have symbolic meaning, and ritualistic purpose. But most importantly every part has an important daily function. No part goes unused, or has more than is needed. If only all houses were this well thought out.
an aside:
We met a friendly Berber man while traveling in Morocco, in the town that is almost entirely blue, Chefchaouen. he taught me how to tie a proper Berber turban. it was a magical moment in a magical town where the air smelled of cedar woodsmoke, and tasted like overly sweet mint tea. One day I would love to go up into the hills there and meet more of the Berber people. You could see them coming down the mountain with their donkeys and bright clothing to sell their wares (woven carpets).

p.s. One of my readers brought up the point that “the Tonke, looks great, and would probably be a joy to travel around in, but aside from the towing engines not being fuel efficient, as you mentioned, it is also made out of rainforest woods: teak and mahogany. Rainforest destruction accounts for roughly 20-25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention irreparable damage to delicate ecosystems and biodiversity.” an important point. (thanks for that Olga!)

May 18th, 2009
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I very excited and flattered that my design won a recent competition at Social Designer.com! The challenge was to design a tote bag using type that had a green message. A percentage of profits from all sold will go to Global Green, a charity that aims to “foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future by reconnecting humanity with the environment.” (Very much like myself).

May 9th, 2009
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Just returned from Baltimore, my talk went really well. Better than I could have hoped actually given some of the response I received. I had a kind of epiphany over the course of the last few days. Lately I have been feeling like I really need to be in a teaching position in order to reach people more. And yet I had so many teachers coming up to me and telling me how I have been helping and impacting them for years! I was totally overwhelmed and awestruck by it. The universe has sent me a message loud and clear, I have been teaching, just in a non-traditional way. And I AM reaching people far and wide.
I guess I hadn’t been thinking about it in that way.
So, a big thank you to all who attended the summit in Baltimore, and to all who wrote me. You words have done more than you know and confirmed for me that the path I am on is the right one for me. I feel rather invincible right now, ready to take on the world, (and infuse it with more of my subversive ideas). The education system is one of my main points of interest with regards to infiltration and world domination (you think I’m joking but I’m not).
I want to write so much more on these things (about traveling and driving for ten hours with a one year old, it went better than expected actually.) But my little one needs me right now.
to be continued…


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