Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.
 ~ Marion C. Garretty

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? 
~ Milton Berle

There is only one beautiful child in the world, and every mother has it.
 ~ Chinese Proverb

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.
 ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
 ~ Elizabeth Stone

A mom forgives us all our faults, not to mention one or two we don’t even have.
 ~ Robert Brault

Mirror, mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all.
 ~ Author Unknown

If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.
 ~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.
 ~ Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. 
~ Unknown

Photo: My mom, Joan circa 1955. I’m heading out to lunch with her now…

In case you missed this the first time around…

Feeling a little bullish and full of questions about Earth Day.

Do we still need Earth Day?

I remember the first Earth Day. We were told, “Make every day Earth Day.”

Did we?

At the time, our cars slurped leaded gas, power plants belched out smoke and smog without recourse, and our rivers were on fire.

With even cleaner ways to power our vehicles, have we embraced cleaner cars? With mercury pollution poisoning our children and asthma on the rise, is our air clean enough? What will happen to our rivers and ground water if our land is fracked?

Earth Day was inspired by the anti-war movement. It tapped into that tremendous energy to bring public awareness to air and water pollution. In April of that year, 20 million Americans rallied for a healthier environment. Groups fought for less polluting power plants, eliminating toxic landfills, bans on pesticides, and cleaner roads.

How’d they do it?

In a rare political alignment, Republicans and Democrats created the EPA, and then passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

Could this be done today?

We’ve got climate change deniers in Congress, and a well-funded pro-polluter lobby drumming the false message that we have to choose between the economy and our precious planet. Such a no-brainer. Where’s the economy headed if we can’t breathe the air, drink the water or farm on the land?

What can we do with such a divided environmental community?

We’ve come a long way since 1970, yet we haven’t answered all the questions. I’m thinking we need a new uprising, a new mission for Earth Day…a grassroots movement focused on the single most important environmental problem of our time–global warming. Our parents fought hard for a cleaner environment for their children. And we’ve learned there is no away.

Maybe it’s time to repurpose Earth Day?

Earth Day 1970…

Poster: IDSA

“See that storm over yonder
It’s gonna rain all day
But then the sun’s gonna shine
Through the shadows
When I go away” ~ Levon Helm, When I Go Away

I have been listening to a retrospective of Levon Helm’s life and music this morning. He was well loved, and his passing sent waves through my Hudson Valley community where he lived. The Band’s music defined a cavernous slice of my teenage heart. A renewed love for their sound rose up a few years ago when my son played with a band that closed out their performances with “The Weight.”

When I heard Levon Helm’s voice on the radio this morning singing, “When I Go Away,” it reminded me of the time my dad came upstairs to my bedroom just before I left home for college. My room was a teen shrine to the music of the ’60′s and early ’70′s. My dad was a musician in his own right, and he appreciated all types of music. He often brought his trumpet up to listen to “my music.” That day, I was lying on the shag rug staring at the ceiling, listening to The Band. With instrument in hand, he laid down next to me, and we had a conversation that went something like this:

Dad: What are you listening to on your victrola?
My dad always called my record player, a victrola…even though I referred to it as my “stereo.”
Me: The Band.
Dad: What kind of name is The Band for a band?
Me: The perfect name for whatever you are listening to.
Dad: Yes, well you won’t forget this dusty sound, they sound like the earth.

Earthy sound. Earthy Day. Keep ‘em in your heart.

Credit: Ambera Wellman

In my conciliatory effort to catch up, it’s time for a spring fling knitting project. Before you grab your needles, let’s take a look at the saving the planet side of knitting.

Since I must examine the eco-friendliness of everything, and I must knit, I must help you find a way to knit without doing any further harm to our precious environment.

Let’s be real. Knitting is not the greenest of crafts. It’s expensive, and there’s a myriad of toxic additives and dyes used in the manufacturing of yarn. The process is not energy-efficient, and not great for workers health. And a large chunk of yarn comes from faraway places. All of this can negatively affect people and our planet.

While the yarn industry may have a long way to go, there are a few things conscious knitters can do.

3 Ways to Green Your Knitting

1. Knit Your Stash – Here’s a fact: Knitters horde yarn. Why? Because you’ll never know when you will need a variegated purple fingering-weight merino angora-blend skein. What was I thinking?

2. Unravel An Old Sweater – It’s spring…go weeding in your sweater drawer. I wrote about how to rip out a sweater and reuse the yarn HERE. Try it. For some, ripping out is more fun than knitting.

3. Consider Your Ecological Impact – Purchase organic yarn from a local yarn shop. Organic yarn goes through the same rigorous requirements as organic meat. Sheep are fed organic feed, free of injected growth hormones, and their cushy fleeces cannot be washed in chemicals. Natural dyes seal the eco-deal.

Big Cable Knitted Coverlet

My daughter sent me a photo of a coverlet she wants for her bed (main image). I pinned it onto my Pinterest Knitting Board. Love the big cables. I found the perfect (free) KNITTING PATTERN (right), and beautiful creamy organic yarn at my local yarn shop.

Cabled and caught up!

Photos: the style files, Lion Brand Yarn

Prepare to be inspired by this sustainable farming/teaching project:

via: Treehugger

Just meander outside and check out the season of birth. Popping up from under the gray/green floor of the winter that wasn’t, is a colorfully vibrant, if not eerily early spring. My husband tells me Easter is always the first Sunday immediately following the first full moon, after the first day of spring.

The tradition of giving eggs represents new life and can be traced back to ancient cultures. But the wasteful carbon footprint of unnaturally bright-colored eggs and plastic grass, stomps on our planet. According to the National Retail Federation, the average person is expected to spend $145.28, up 11% from last year’s $131.04…a record $16.8 billion is projected to go into Easter-related spending. Yikes!

When my kids were younger, we ditched the harmful dyes and created gorgeous eggs (see last year’s post) from natural sources. And of course, we eat our daily dose of chocolate to stay thin. Really. Haven’t you heard the latest study about eating chocolate to help you stay thin?

Last night the kids (and their significant others) ushered in the season with a new tradition. They watched the moon rise from the warmth of our outdoor hot tub. Divine indeed!

An Eggcellent Idea

My father-in-law is a tie-wearer, a tie-collector and a tie-lover. A while ago, I inherited a bag of old silk ties from him with a note: “You’ll find something creative to do with these.”

Voila! I’m beyond smitten with these silk-dyed eggs made from old ties. Just a wonderful idea from guess who? Martha Stewart, who else?

All you need are raw eggs, old silk ties (shirts or boxers), vinegar, water and this tutorial.

Rebirth seems like a good idea. And as Pete Seeger croons, “If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, or recycled, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed.”

Photos: The June Bride

Dishing out food has never been my forte. I like to read gorgeous cookbooks, but I tend to gravitate towards the table setting images. The rest is like a foreign language to me. I’m easily dazed, confused and distracted. When I do set out to execute a recipe, just as the timer goes off, I realize I’ve left out an ingredient…usually, the main one.

Luckily, the other three members of my family, and my mom, are spectacularly adept pan-slayers. I’ve mentioned before that my husband is truly a gifted gourmet. And that’s a good thing, because I do enjoy eating well.

Along comes my kind of cookbook, The Real Cookbook from the German design agency, Korefe. 

Here are 3 reasons why I love it:

1. It’s made of 100% fresh pasta (yum).
2. The pasta pages are used as sheets of lasagna (yum, yum).
3. Just bake the book and eat (yum, yum yum).

Don’t you think there’s something really delicious to be said about food that comes with its own instructions?

READ MORE:
Fixing Food On A Starving Planet
Food Rules Backlash
DIY Eco-Gifts For The Vegan And Vegetarian

Maybe it’s the work. Maybe it’s the strange weather. Maybe it’s what happens when you fall out of habit. Whatever. I let Econesting slide.

Blogging is a velvety, winding path. For me, keeping up with the demands of blogging must be inline with passion, or why bother? Compromising doesn’t work. Enthusiasms shift and swirl, and passions take turns. I’m not swayed in my mission to share stylish green design through the eyes of a DIY heart. These things mattered five years ago when I started blogging and they still matter.

I’m also a mom, and what I’ve learned from that role is that balancing on the path is the main act. Sometimes the path gets thrown off. Not necessarily off-kilter, or veering off-course…but, wound around in one direction.

I threw myself into my Moms Clean Air Force work. It was not because it was the right thing to do (which it was), but because I wanted to. Because it mattered more…more than design, more than going greener, even more than knitting. I know, my knitting friends are scratching their fair isle heads in disbelief.

Pollution matters because it burrows deep into the core of global warming. Global warming matters because our children deserve a healthy, just and sustainable planet. Period.

Now I’m working on restoring balance and winding my way back.

Thank you for hanging in there. Your kind notes about missing Econesting nudged me closer to breaking the cycle of not posting. My knitting friends have been the most vocal in my absence, and I promise not to disappoint those who choose to click needles over computer keys.

Enough about me, how are you? How do you find balance between the work you love and the things you love?

Photos via Freshome from the beautiful town of Jaujac, France which recently became part of an art installation designed by Marseille-based artist Gaëlle Villedary.

I am awestruck by the beauty of these sling chairs. The chairs are handcrafted with over-dyed repurposed rugs. The custom designed chairs from Still + Co. for Sit and Read in Brooklyn, are hemmed and hand-stitched onto welded wrought iron frames.

Check out the rug-dying process via Design Sponge. Gorgeous.

Still & Co. for Sit and Read from Sit and Read on Vimeo.