Yarn Art?

I run an afghan-making operation at my house of worship. Mostly, it runs itself. People drop off donated yarns. Other people pick up yarns and knit or crochet them into rectangles. People sew the rectangles together into blankets for battered and abused women (and their kids). I gather up the completed afghans and take them to two deserving local charities.

It's a good system. But it depends on people donating yarn, to get things started.

Sometimes folks drop off unuseable yarn. Like this, for instance:

It's kinda scary looking, isn't it? It looks like a giant Sandworm from "Dune," or what's left over when an elephant eats an entire yarn shop.

Elephant yarn poops.

A whole mess of tightly woven, ugly-colored yarn poops.

The yarn is scratchy and thin. It's for needlepoint projects, I think. Certainly not for blanket-making projects.

So, what does one do with a pile of fuzzy, turd-shaped, I-could-bop-you-over-the-head-with-this-it's-wrapped-so-tight rejects from 1970s?

Stick them in an apothecary jar?

They look like they're trying to make their escape.

Put them in a bigger, "statement" vase?

Nope. Still look hideous.

I think the only way these puppies would look good is in one of those huge, free-form wooden bowls you see in high-end decorating magazines.

A cool bowl like this:

photo: slazebni

Set in the middle of a cool coffee table like this:

photo: rotormind

or this:

photo: mokolabs

Which is, in turn, placed in a cool, hip loft like this:

photo: ooh food

But right now?

These dudes are freaking me out, so into the "Giveaway" pile they go.

Until some hipster with a loft, a coffee table, and a giant, empty wood bowl comes along.

Pots and Pugs

A local house-and-garden store near our house is going out of business in a few days. That's the bad news. The good news is, they have been slashing prices for the past several weeks.

They started out at 30 percent off everything. I took note but didn't jump in.

Then they dropped everything to 50 percent off. I went in and looked around but didn't bite.

Last weekend, however, they hacked the prices down to 70 percent off, and I pounced.

I bought six of these gorgeous, big, aqua-glazed garden pots for a pittance:

Here, my shoes give you a sense of how big these beauties are (the pots--not my feet!):

I intend to plant herbs in these babies soon.

The pots have a classic shape, a rolled rim, and a beautiful scattering of speckles.

The glaze is crackled in some places:

and flows slightly in others:

The glaze continues inside each pot, where it ends in yummy-looking drips, like melted turquoise ice cream:

The pots attracted the attention of the pugs, of course. Nothing that invades "their" garden goes unexamined:

Mu Shu moves in for a closer investigation.

Monkey see, monkey do, Pao Pao .

All checked out! You may proceed to plant the pots, mom.

Only, please...

Could you first lift us out before you pour in the dirt?

Naked Dry Cleaning

About a month ago, I was visiting eco-friendly Seattle. I saw something I'd never seen before: a dry cleaning establishment that doesn't use plastic bags--only reusable garment bags:

What a brilliant idea! Each customer has one or two (or more) bags, identified with a personal label, and they are used over and over by the cleaners.

No more plastic bags clogging up the landfill!

(I *heart* my dry cleaner, too, but I don't *heart* all the plastic bags and paper covers they use.)

When I got back home, I asked my own, local laundry if they would/could do such a thing. And for less than $8, look what they ordered for me:

It's called "The Green Garmento," and apparently it's pretty well known. It's been reviewed by Hoda and Kathie Lee on "The Today Show," and even "The Situation" has praised it on "The View."

According to the GG website, the sturdy, reusable clothes bag comes in six colors and four lengths.

It is a really well-thought-out product. It has a see-through pocket to slip in the name/address/laundry ticket for each customer:

It has two short straps on the back side for hanging up or carrying, as well as a long strap running down the length of the bag:

You can hang the bag up by the short strap at the bottom so it's set to receive dirty laundry:

Or you can fit it over a standard-size clothes hamper (sort of like a trash can liner). Since I don't have that, I hang mine in the laundry room until it's filled with The Hubby's shirts:

Then I use the drawstring to close it up:

It stays cinched up because of this little goodie, here:

You can carry the bag to your laundry via the two short handles:

...or toss it over your shoulder using the long handle:

Since it's hard for me to take a photo of myself holding the bag, here it is hanging on my laundry-room cupboard:

Now, here's the important part: When you drop off your clothes, give the bag to the nice person at the front desk and ask them to return your clothes to you on hangers but...

NAKED!

That means, no paper "shoulders" and no plastic bags. (Because that's why you got The Green Garmento, in the first place, right?)

There's a side zipper so your laundry folks can slide your washed-and-pressed-and-hung-on-hangers duds easily into the bag:

And you can buzz merrily home, knowing you've done the environment a favor today.

Even if your local laundry isn't ready to buy these reusable bags for all its customers, you and a few of your peeps can start the ball rolling by using them. And the more folks who do this, the more other folks will see it being done and ask, "Hey! Where can I get one of those?"

And that's how some revolutions begin. One (naked dry cleaning) person at a time.

Grad Season Is Almost Here!

The graduation announcements for Lovely Daughter #2 arrived yesterday. I am so excited!

Like an anxious mom checking all the fingers and toes on her newborn, I first made sure my child's name was spelled right:

Yup, they got that right. And they got her degree correct:

*Sigh*. My baby's so grown up.

Everything looks beautiful. The deckled edges on the announcements...

The blind-embossed border around the front of the announcement:

The beautiful silver-foil seals to put on the flap of the outside envelope:

Inner and outer envelopes for that extra bit of class:

Very helpfully labeled, I might add.

Oooh! There's return-address labels with the school's seal. How convenient!

There's even a sweet quote on the inside of the announcement:

Only trouble is...

The Hubby and I have been writing checks to a different institution of higher learning for the last four years.

And this one ain't it.

Luuuuucy? Somebody's got some 'splainin' to do....