Etsy shop

I now have an Etsy shop! Well actually I started it back in 2006 but closed it because I could not devote sufficient time to maintaining it. It's been reopened (this month) and so far it's looking good. My shop name, should you want to look it up at www.etsy.com is "jennilesart". Or you can click here for the link.

I also made my first Etsy purchase recently and it was very cool! The Etsy shop name is "lulaballou" and she makes the cutest little fabric handbags. Etsy also has a way you can shop locally because they can sort the offerings by location, which is a great way to buy handmade AND shop locally, at the same time.

Urban gardening & Youth employment program

I heard about this local program here in Worcester, Mass., and am mentioning it here because it sounds very worthwhile. I hope you will read on... (this is a condensed version of the writeup I received):

"Pernet Family Health Services is a neighborhood-based home health and
social service agency with a commitment to supporting families to be
physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually whole. The
agency has been serving the Green Island region of Worcester, MA since
1968. This summer, Pernet received funding to create part-time
summer jobs for underprivileged youth. Pernet has decided to use its
youth employment program to fund the creation of a community garden
and install container flower beds throughout the area's small business
district.

Why Youth Gardening?

Pernet chose to create The Green Island Garden because...

1. The garden will bring healthy, affordable, organic food to the
people of Green Island, helping to eradicate food insecurity and
malnourishment.
2. Community gardens offer space for citizens to socialize and bond
with one another, fostering a stronger and healthier social fabric.
3. Community gardens localize the food industry, reducing both the
price of people's food and the city's carbon footprint created by
imported products.

The Youth Program

Pernet's youth employment program is one piece of a city-wide
initiative to give underprivileged youth access to part-time summer
jobs. Any youth (ages 14-21) that qualifies for free school lunch or,
for those youth not in school, meets other income-based requirements,
is eligible for the program. Various organizations throughout the city
have been given the responsibility of placing youth into employment
situations.

Pernet seeks to involve the Green Island neighborhood in this project
as much as possible. We will be selling low-cost shares in the
community garden to its neighbors, guaranteeing them a portion of the
harvest throughout the summer. We will also be sponsoring community
events. The first such event will be on Saturday, June 21st from
8am-3pm, during which time we will be raising the garden beds while
enjoying live music from Melo-Deego and free food from local
restaurants."

I've edited the writeup because the information provided to me was quite lengthy. But it sounds terrific and that is why I wanted to put in a good word here. For More Information, call Lizzy Fox at (508) 755-1228 or email her at lfox@pernetfamilyhealth.org

Pajama Gardening and Plastic Bags

The rising gas prices have really forced some changes around here. When I have to go out in the car, I do multiple tasks on that one trip rather than waste gas going to that neighborhood more than once.

One thing that causes us to do too much driving is searching around for healthy food that won't put us in the poorhouse in the process. We are not strict health food adherents by any stretch, but we're very wary of pesticides on our fruits and veggie. In foods, we avoid high fructose corn syrup and trans fats, and in meat and dairy, we avoid hormones and antibiotics. That right there could tack a lot of miles onto a shopping trip!

We like Whole Foods for some things, but the drive from Worcester to Framingham is just too taxing on our conscience and our wallet these days, so we rarely make a special trip that way. Living Earth in Worcester....well....that's always been cost-prohibitive but now, with gas at $3.60 or so per gallon, I wonder if staying close and shopping there might be cheaper than driving to Trader Joe's. This is awful.

Anyway, I digress. One day recently, as I mused about how little cash my art was generating these days, and how high the cost of fresh organic vegetables (and the gas to drive and get them) is, the proverbial "light bulb" went off over my head. Instead of leaving the gardening to my already overworked husband, I would do it. Heck, I'm here all day homeschooling the little one anyway....what a great educational opportunity! Honestly, when I saw how many hours my work was taking me away from my family and houseworking and other important jobs, and how little profit I was reaping in return, it really made me see the need for this change. By maximizing the capacity of my yard to grow food, I am "earning" in another way. Rather than bringing in money to buy food, I could be bringing in the food itself. After all, my work on Freecycle allows me to bring in many of the items we need or want (and unload them when we're done)...why not bring in food too?

Of course, I have never gardened and don't know a darn thing about it. Thank goodness for the internet! Anyway, my son (age 5) and I have invented a new ritual called Pajama Gardening. Right after breakfast we charge outside in our sleepwear (usually sweats and a t-shirt anyway) and get right to it. I do the work; he's in charge of running around the house waving his rake. In his mind, that's gardening. LOL!! Anyway he sometimes takes loads of yard waste in his little red wagon to dump out back. It's great fun and great exercise. I used to make the mistake of waiting until we got dressed, but by the time THAT was accomplished (those of you with young kids will get this), the sun was too high in the sky and I was, frankly, too exhausted and demoralized to tackle a weedy and unruly yard which sometimes resembles a rain forest!

Anyway, back to work for me. I just wanted to tell you about Pajama Gardening and this cool thing. A nearby town recently voted down a ban on plastic bags at several of the larger offenders...er....I mean stores. That caused quite a debate, or should I say shouting match, on some of the message boards. Don't get me started on what a bunch of babies I think people are when they freak out over a plastic grocery bag ban. For heavens sakes, we're Americans and should be quite resourceful. Bring a cloth bag! Case closed. Anyway, speaking of alternatives, look at this thing I found while Googling the whole plastic bag issue. It's a reusable tote bag that is MADE from old plastic grocery bags! Check it out:

http://www.marloscrochetcorner.com/Plastic%20Bag%20tote.html

So clever!

To h_ _ _ in a handbasket

Ok, maybe I was just in a bad mood. Maybe I was put off by the price of the gas I burned going to Shaw's in the first place. Or I was secretly mad at myself for thinking I'd actually find organic vegetables there (what was I thinking?). But in any case, the other night I saw the evidence that we are indeed headed to hell in a handbasket.

I picked up a nice red vine tomato and looked at the little label that contains the produce number. You know, the one that helps the cashier know how much to charge (the number which, when it starts in "9" means it's organic, "4" means conventional). Well imagine my horror when the little number of the tomato was there, along with an AD for Disney's movie called Ratatouille!! There it was! Disney * Pixar * Ratatouille. On my TOMATO!

I wrote to Shaw's. I told them that if I see the word "Ratatouille" on my produce it damn well better be part of a recipe.

Wal-Mart and the community-owned store

Last night on NPR I heard about a community-owned department store in the Adirondacks that was one town's answer to a proposed Wal Mart there. So, I decided to Google it and find out more. In the process I came across this funny quote that I just had to pass along:

Take Wal-Mart, the most famously offensive, town-destroying, junk-purveying, labor-abusing, sweatshop-supporting, American-job-killing, soul-numbing, hope-curdling retailer in the known universe, moving upward of $300 billion in cheap mass-produced slurm every year via more than 5,000 landscape-mauling eyesore stores stretching all the way from Texas to China and Argentina and South Korea and Mexico and your backyard.
--Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle

There's nothing I can add to that. :-)

Even if there were, I don't have the time. I am SO busy, making new art, redesigning my web ite (I plan to go "live" this weekend 3/15 or 3/16/08), finding new markets for my cards....the blog suffers.

The Cooperage - a gift shop in Townsend, Mass.

I discovered the cutest store this weekend! It's the kind of place that makes me fall in love with New England all over again. It is an old mill building right on a rushing waterfall, and it's called The Cooperage. They have an eclectic mix of items and a wonderful, warm atmosphere. If you click here for their web site, you can see a photo gallery of the inside and outside of this lovely old store. The owner, Susan Bates, is the nicest lady who just loves to talk with her customers. When I was there, an adorable little sheep--I mean, a DOG--got down off his cozy spot on the couch and let me pet his soft curly hair. I was enchanted with the sweet little fellow (and that is really saying something since I generally am not considered a "dog person".)

I had a really good time there, and of course my full disclosure would not be complete if I didn't say that Susan also bought a bunch of my cards and magnets. She's got an "animal corner" of her store with animal-themed gifts, both for humans and for the animals (like catnip).

I'd probably say more, but I am being called by my son...he needs help with yet another project involving the Solar System.

Art Workshop by Susan Champeny

I've been busy discovering (and selling to) new stores! And, of course, keeping up with the creation of new designs and merchandise to sell. Sometimes the blogging takes a break when I get this busy.

First, let me say that my friend Susan Champeny is at it again. She is offering an art workshop on Saturday, March 29 at the Alternatives Unlimited building in Whitinsville. It is called "Paint Beyond the Horizon Line - create landscape greeting cards with artist Susan Champeny". Contact Sue at champeny@attglobal.net for more information. She has a nifty emailed postcard she can send you with more about what she will be teaching and a sample of her technique.

As for my latest news, I will be writing about those adventures in my next blog entry. (I like to keep topics separate.)