author intrusion

i'm livid

Over seven hundred miles of stream covered up, seven hundred more by 2018. People's homes are being destroyed, in some estimations, 90% of miners have lost their jobs to it, people can't go outside at certain times of the day because they simply can't breathe the air, the water tables are being destroyed. This is what mountaintop removal mining does.

But who cares right? It's just uneducated hillbillies who suffer. (I say that tongue in cheek.) Hmm, wonder what would happen if they tried to do this in other, more economically upscale portions of the country? Imagine the hue and cry!

This is why my next book will be set in Appalachia. Is surface mining safer? You bet! But it leaves people unemployed in an already economically depressed area. Let the miners decide if it isn't safe enough for them to go in. It's a dignified worthy profession. One that has been worked for generations. This isn't about safety, though, it's about making money. And about making money without lifting up the community who live in and among the natural resources. Why has so much money been made in Appalachia and the people are still in poverty? Is that really the American way? I sure hope not. It reminds me of what the Belgians did in the Congo with the rubber industry. Please tell me we're better than that.

Great strides have been made in Nuclear energy. (Now I've made EVERYbody mad! Ha!) Surely we don't have to literally destroy God's creation like this. Our kids and grandkids deserve better.

Link: Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining - New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 — The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.

saga of the capris: part five and final

I'm sure you're almost as glad as I am that the saga of the capris is coming to a close. Here are some pictures of the final outcome. (From top to bottom, front, back, and favorite spot of the project for me: the knee.)

This took me hours and hours. Had I chosen simply to patch, I think it would have taken about twenty percent of the time. I learned the process as I went and the stitching picked up its pace the further in I got. This project went far beyond patching to a lot of embellishment, but honestly, folks, some of us crazies still want to look stylish, even if we are patching our jeans! Can I hear an amen?

What I got out of this:

1. It's a good feeling not to spend extra money if you don't have to.
2. I loved these capris from the get- go, and now I get to wear them a lot longer.
3. It's been great to work with my hands again. I think humans need that in one form or another. I found it settled me somewhat, and I loved having a project to grab when going to the pool or a place where we were just going to sit and talk.
4. It's really satisfying to create something pretty. That's all, just something pretty.

Anybody else start on their own project? Please share!

lisa

The Capri Saga: part . . . four?

Really? Four posts on a lousy pair of capris?  Good heavens!  Ha!

Anyway, here is where I am on these pants.  I snipped around the holes to make it clean and then did a blanket stitch around it to secure the fabric from fraying. (See the knee hole.) The article on the web said to satin stitch, but I don't trust satin stitches by hand as much blanket stitches, for some reason. It's too easy to have an uneven tension on your stitches.

(Okay, little known fact about me. Years ago, before I started writing, my friend Jennifer and I made about forty beautiful little white muslin dresses that she sewed and I embroidered on the placket. I really like to embroider [not cross stitch because the repetitive action makes me nauseous after a while]. So both of us are not salespeople at heart and our Tea Time Garment Company clothes ended up on our own children and being given away!) Back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

So blanket stitch it is.  Step two, sewing on the patch.  This is what you see by the pocket. Instead of cutting out a square or something, I used two pieces of fabric cut from the paisleys in the material. I pinned on accordingly and secured with the blanket stitch again. It's a little rough because it's been years since I've embroidered, but I'm starting to feel the muscle memory coming back. I'm also planning on embroidering the denim around it and maybe even adding an extra paisley or two on the pocket.

I'll check in and show you all the jeans when I'm finished. This is actually fun. I feel creative and thrifty all at the same time!

The saga of the tattered capris: part III

Okay, so, heavy with Dan's comment that there isn't a woman alive that looks good in capris, I've been thinking, well, maybe I should just figure out how to make do with what I have instead of getting something new, or used, that's only destined to make me thoroughly unattractive! ha! Just messin' with you Dan.  So I've decided to put my creativity to work. I've clipped away most of the excess thread on the hole near the back pocket. 

I bought a little bit of quilt fabric today for patching (don't know where it was made) and some embroidery floss (made in France) for decoration. (Total price: $2.25)  I'll keep you posted as I go!

Just Living: Fair Trade Clothing, Day Two: The Search for the Capris

Oh my goodness! I've found a lot of skirts and wraps and dresses and cool batik pants, but capris?  Not so much. And way out of my price range.  Here are the two in the running:

Cropped Twills from Fair Indigo:

Cropped Trousers from Fair Industry:

The big problem? The price. $59 for the cropped twills, $49 for the trousers. I like the trousers better and if I go this route, I'll probably order these.

So here's the thing. Yes, it's all fair trade, but isn't $49 for a stinkin' pair of pants a lot of money? Surely there are better options for me, price-wise. In the comments yesterday, Alana mentioned thrift stores. And while I really want to support the whole fair trade thing, and maybe you do too, what if we just can't afford clothing at these prices. For years I've been a Target shopper and I almost always buy my clothes at the back of the department where they are clumped together on the sale rack.  Shoot, for the Christys, my entire outfit, shoes, jewelry and all, came to $51. That's Target for you. So to pay for one pair of pants what I paid for an entire outfit, shoes and all, just puts a lump in my throat.

So I'll be heading to the thrift stores this week to find those capris. But hey, if I was just looking for other clothes, cool shirts and skirts etc., there is a plethora of wonderful stuff, fair trade, on the internet. Just google "fair trade clothing". If you go to the sale sections, you'll find some great buys.

And hey, how about sewing clothing yourself? Do people reclaim old fabric? Erin Wilson, fellow blogger, makes gorgeous bags from vintage fabric, all with a story behind them. Check out her site! I bought two for Christmas gifts.

Stay tuned! Trying to buy justly isn't easy. This is just going to prove it. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

first do no harm

One of the hard parts about reading Quaker Summer is that you set the book down and think, "What can I do? How do I get involved? I want to do justice."

Well, there are a lot of ways, as you can see from a lot of my former posts, most of them requiring you to get involved in a ministry that feeds the hungry, gives water to the thirsty, visits the sick or lonely or imprisoned, or takes care of the widow and the orphan. The problem usually isn't "What can I do?" but, if we're willing to put our hand to the plow and not look back, "Which one should I pick?" (Here's a plug for my favorite volunteer site, www.volunteermatch.org. Plug in your zip code and see what opportunities abound in your area!)

However, it's hard to know what area of justice you really want to get involved in. So in the meantime, while you're finding out what service opportunities are available in your area, why not seek to practice a lifestyle of doing no harm. Or, at the very least, trying to do no harm!

I realize in today's global market, and as we touched on in our fair trade clothing conversation (Great participation and insights, btw. Loved that!) it would be impossible, unless we wanted to go Amish, to completely extract ourselves from the ambiguities of trying to live with love for those around us and just plain trying to live in our world.

But that doesn't mean we give up and don't try. Or that the following suggestions don't make a difference. Let me just say upfront, that I don't think doing all this stuff will get you to heaven sooner than the next person! Ha! It's easy to get so legalistic about stuff, we fail to love. I so completely don't want to "go there!"

So here are just a few things you can change in your current lifestyle that will make other people's lives better:

1. Keep your thermostat at a reasonable level. Our overdependence on coal, ie. power, rapes the people of Appalachia and their mountains. Use as little of that as you can to keep from contributing to the problem as much as possible. Like I said, most of us can't divorce ourselves completely from the power company! The picture to your right? That used to be a mountain.

2. Same for hot water. Turn off the faucet inbetween washing and rinsing the dishes. Limit your shower to five minutes. Consider an HE (high efficiency) washing machine if you're finding yourself in the market for one these days. (Notice I didn't say throw away your year-old machine and get a new one. Just so we're clear.)  We got one when we moved and it's GREAT. It only uses six gallons per load, and yes, the clothes do come out clean!

3. Same for lights. Change all your bulbs to those squiggly energy-saving, compact-fluorescent bulbs. Folks, we switched to these and it's made a real difference to the electric bill. Probably around 20 or 30 bucks a month. I know it's expensive at first to purchase these, but you'll totally make up for it. I'll admit, I was skeptical about the "glow." I know, that seems silly. But I love the yellow glow of an incandescent lightbulb.  Folks, these aren't bad! They still have a nice lemony, mellow glow and I don't feel like I'm sitting in the school office or at the dentist's! (I used to take my own table lamp to college so my dorm room didn't have to have that awful overhead fluorescent light going all the time.)

3. If you can, keep your driving to a minimum, consolidate trips. If you're now looking for a new car, get something with good gas mileage. We need a third vehicle before summer ends, so we're opting for a scooter instead of a car. You know what? I think it'll be fun zipping around town. Besides, who wants to pay for more gas than they have to? With gas prices these days? Yikes.

All three of these will save you big bucks over the course of a year. So you'll have the money to:

4. Buy as much of your food locally as possible. Support your local CSA farmers. A great way to love your neighbor as yourself. Truly, as living organisms, we are a part of the ecosystem in which we live. Your local food is better for you. Going local organic frees you and your family from pesticides. And local beef is way less likely to have mad cow possibilities. They usually kill their stock more humanely. (I'm no member of PETA, believe me, but you would not believe what so many of these animals go through fully conscious, despite the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958.) I think God made himself pretty clear in scripture that we're to treat animals humanely.

5. Only buy clothing when you are reasonably sure who made it. Bottom line, if enough people refuse to buy clothing made in sweatshops or by children, manufacturers will stop having them made there. All of this outsourcing, as well, takes away jobs from our own country. You can also start actually mending your clothing (wait, wait! the saga of the capris continues!!), as well hanging them on the line to dry (so guilty of NOT doing this, btw, just so you know!), doing what it takes to make them last longer. Gasp! It won't kill you or anybody around you (unless you have a severe odor problem) to actually wear clothes two or three times. Nobody will know the difference. Unless you spilled spaghetti sauce on your shirt, in which  case, yes, we all hope you'll throw it in the wash.

So there you have it. Just a few ways to "Do no harm." Ways you can change your lifestyle a bit and not end up on a farm off the grid in the middle of nowhere wearing sackcloth dresses and shoes made from, I dunno, old cow patties? What? Even if you just incorporate a few of these into your life, it'll make a difference and free up some of the old cash in your pocketbook to boot.

Am I crazy? Yeah, maybe. I think I'm starting to get used to it.  Ha!

Any other suggestions?