a home

I had to share about this house. This couple in Whales built it themselves for their small family of four! 

From the article, about the house:

Sustainable design and construction:

1. Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
2. Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
3. Frame constructed of fallen trees from surrounding woodland
4. Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally very easy to do
5. Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
6. Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
7. Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture compared to cement
8. Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
9. Other items were reclaimed from “a rubbish pile somewhere”: windows, wiring, plumbing

I find this place very beautiful.... I wonder if I could ever get Julton to live in a place like this for a while... or if a place exists that we could rent even if only for vacation...hmmm

a sonnet

Source: quote-book.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

it would appear that i have abanded this blog wouldn't it?


well... let the unabandoning begin.




i have been going through lots and lots of thinking and rethinking and studying and trying to figure out a direction for this life that i am living. ... but let me make a clarification there. i'm quite content with the life that i'm living, what i mean by that would be an addition such as... what would life look like if i'm not per say... teaching english forever? i love my students and my classes, but something has been stirring inside to figure out what i'm doing and where i'm going... and that has actually recently led me to the discovery that i want to pursue graduate school! marriage and family counseling masters program here i come... but.. in the meantime and even then i can still gather things that catch my eye right? i am officially declaring i'm not sure what direction this blog is going to go in... so expect the unexpected (because I am too).

knit or crochet for others

i am so very incredibly excited about a little discovery i made today! (tonight). 


As I was skimming some photos and projects I ran across a tutorial about crochet. I thought it would be interesting to see (since I myself, although technically i do know how to do it i often just fudge together stuff and i'm not so technical, so i figured a technical 5 minute how to video would do me some good). what i stumbled onto though... was much more than a crochet tutorial! (which i did in fact say ohhh that's how you do that part!). landsend.com was donating their yarn to knitters and crocheters, using a few select patterns they then knitted or crocheted blocks, mailed those blocks off, and there were other groups that put the blocks together into blankets that they are going to donate to families that need some more warmth! through the foundation warm up america. i'm so excited and wish that i could be a part of it!! it sounds like such a great idea.  plus: they also shared another tutorial.. on how to knit! i'm excited about that since i'm trying to teach myself.. mind you... im reading a book and haven't bought the needles yet.. but im getting there. this tutorial showed me just how easy it can be! although.. from the looks of it, still harder than crochet. 

you can go to these websites for more information:


landsend.com/feelgood (feel good is the name of the yarn they donate)
and to see a better explanation:

a headband.

i used to wear a headband nearly every day of the week. my favorite being s childsize belt that i found in a thrift store and loved the pattern too much to not buy it. you cant tell its a belt... until the metal hoops decide to slip out the back, to which someone always says hey... is that a belt?? i also have many a scarf, scraps of fabric, and a few ties which i used to wear more often than now. not sure why, except that i can never get it secured tight enough to my head for my comfort. 
today i ran across this:

It's a headband that she didn't even sew or crochet. It's braided from a cut up t-shirt! She based the design off a headband from anthropology. i find myself liking it very much, and would love to try to make it... maybe it will get me back into wearing headbands more often... to see her tutorial and visit her site (which i am about to go back and do again:) ) her site is Sew Homegrown

another sofa.

a sofa. 
i recently posted about our "artesianal sofa" and even though we use/love it... we are still on the look out for a sofa sofa. 

which means when i stumbled upon this photo at French By Design in her post about reusing and recreating with wooden crates... and also another DIY post over at Under The Sycamore (the pictures of which, you should really go look at) I got really excited, about us making our own sofa. I think it would go well with the apartment, and the recently hung tapestry :D 


The great addition to the bed/sofa at Under The Sycamore is that she added wheels, with stoppers. Which would be nice, because it's not just wood lying on the floor, its moveable - which would come in quite handy since we are constantly cleaning the floor which always looks dirty since it's white and I can't figure out where on earth all the dirt comes from in one day. 


We are going to undertake this task.. I'm just not sure when yet, hopefully sooner than later... but for now, I am sufficiently content with the excitement to even begin the project at all!

a jackson pollack

Julton and I are slowly... and I mean slowly decorating/filling up our apartment. Its okay too that we are going slowly... that way later if we are moving we don't have to give away/get rid of a lot of stuff.
 
I recently found this post on  A Little Bit Weird.com where they made their own Jackson Pollack painting! And to my surprise as we were watching the video Julton responded with, hey let's do that!


So... very soon I will share our new piece of art with you!