This book also has a bunch of other awesome stories. The Very Mischief by Lesley Frost. Susan’s Bears by Mildred Lawrence and the Pear Tree by E. Elizabeth Longwell. ther is a list on this page.

________________________________________

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Donnica who lived with her mother and a little black mouse. Mousie was very bad because no one had taught him to be good.

He cut big holes in the bedspread with Donnica’s little scissors.
He threw all of Donnica’s clean socks into the bathtub when it had water in it.
He made little mud tracks all over the rug when he came in.
Donnica’s mother said, “Mousie, don’t you know that nobody loves a bad mouse? That’s why we don’t want you to stay here with us anymore.” And she took her broom and swept him out of the house. “Now, don’t you come back until you learn to be a good ouse,” she called after him. Then she closed the door and locked it.
But bad Mousie waited until dark. Then he crawled under the gate and crept through a crack in the wall. And next morning, there he was again!
Donnica was glad to see him, but Mousie was still bad.
He pulled the top off the powder can and spilled powder all over the rug.
He tangled Donnica’s hair and scattered her ribbons on the floor.
He tipped over things not he breakfast table and spilled cocoa, and orange juice, and lots and lots of milk.
This made Donnica’s mother very angry. “Bad Mousie,” she said, “I’m going to put you in a box and close it tight and throw it in my washtub full fo water.” And she did.

But the box was only glued together, and the water softened the glue and the box fell apart. So, Mousie swam up to the top and scrambled out. Then he shook the water out of his ears and he climbed the cellar stairs and squeezed under the door. And there he was again! And Donnica was glad to see him.
The next day Mousie was as bad as ever.
He pulled all the books out of the shelves and tore out some of the pages.
He unrolled yards and yards of paper in the bathroom.
He spilled green ink all over the inside of a desk drawer.
Now Donnica’s mother was very, very angry. She said, “Mousie, you are so very bad that I shall feed you to the night owl!” o she took him and tied him with three white strings to the fence in the back yard. Then she put a yellow ribbon around his neck, so that the owl could see him better in the dark and fly down and gobble him up.
But before the stars came out, the mouse wriggled and tugged and finally got his feet loose. Then he untangled his tail, and nibbled through the strings around his tummy. So he was free again, and he ran and hid all night. The owl couldn’t find him.
Next morning he came back to the house and climbed in at an open window. And there he was again! And Donnica was glad to see him.
But Mousie was still bad!
The next time Donnica’s mother was away at the store, he took purple crayon and scribbled all over the yellow wallpaper.
Then he dumped all the buttons out of the button box.
He found a bottle of shoe polish, and he painted the floor white.
When Donnica’s mother came home and found the awful mess he had made, she grabbed him by his little string tail. Then she pressed her lips together hard, and she thought and thought of a way to get rid of him. At last she decided to let the wind blow him away.

So she got her oldest umbrella and fastened Mousie to the handle with an old belt. Then she carried him up to the roof and opened the umbrella, so that the wind could blow him off, right into the sky. The little mouse kicked and squeaked, but it did him no good, for soon the umbrella was sailing up, up over the tree tops. And Mousie was fastened to it.
After a while the umbrella drifted gently down onto a little ink cloud. Mousie managed to get himself unbuckled, and he let the big umbrella blow away. Then he lay down on the soft, warm cloud to rest. He was really very lonely and wished that he could go home to Donnica and her mother and live there with them. “Maybe I could leaner to be good,” he thought.
All of a sudden it began to get cold and th cloud began to drip. Drip, drip; drop, drop; dripple, droplet; the cloud was changing into rain. Mousie was getting wetter and wetter. Soon there was no cloud to lie on, and down he tumbled with the raindrops. Down, down, until he splashed into a muddy puddle.
Mousie was cold and wet and very unhappy. He had to swim and wade to get out of the big puddle. Then he ran as fast as he could to Donnica’s house. But before he crept under the door, guess what he did! He wiped his muddy little feet on the doormat.
And when Donnica looked around, there he was again! “Donnica,” said the mouse, “could you teach me to be a good mouse? I want to stay here with you where it is warm and cozy and I can be your friend.”
“I’ll try to teach you,” said Donnica.
“And I’ll try to be good, ” said the mouse.
So Donnica taught him how to begin to be good.
She showed him what not to touch.
She told him to cutpaper dolls, instead of bedspreads, with her little scissors.

She taught him how to wipe up the milk he spilled.
She helped him pick up books and put buttons away in there boxes.
Then she kissed him to help him get good faster.
When Donnica’s mother came home from the store, she certainly was surprised, for there was Mousie helping Donnica set the table for lunch.
“Mommie, I’m teaching him to be a good mouse,” said Donnica, “and Mousie is trying very, very hard. Please let him stay.”
So Donnica’s mother was proud of them both, and she told Mousie that she, too, would help him learn to be good. Then she hugged Donnica and the mouse, and they all join hands and danced round and round.
Next day Mousie brought in the morning newspaper and the mail.
He wiped all the forks and spoons, and put away the pans after breakfast.
And he spread the wet tea-towels out on the grass too bleach in the sun.
So Mousie became a good mouse, and they all lived cozily together again.

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In November we whacked a bunch of plum trees that were taking over the whole back section of yard and we had the arborist leave all the branches. Those branches are precious organic material to make new dirt with, also sort of annoying to deal with. Vim is on about getting a compost shredder and I feel like we should have to sit in the backyard and shred it all with our teeth. Vim eventually made a big berm with all the branches against the back brick wall. And Vim built a low raised bed that we bought expensive dirt for. No chickens have arrived yet.

Here is a picture from June:

everything is looking pretty janky in this picture and the lighting is weird and there is huge pile of junk in the lower left corner. The chickens are in their new penned in run, you can see a new larger raised bed on the left and some squash plants acting weird and lurking in the middle left. Nasty old Burning man rug is out in the hopes that it will start to kill the grass and we put a nice outdoor table from CB2. oh and my fluffy herb spiral is flourishing behind the table a bit.

Here is a picture from July:

We have removed the pile of junk and put the rug and table over in the lower left. so that we can get started on our cover crop plan. I can’t tell from this picture if we have already done it or not… But we did turn over all the current grass and planted a cover crop mixture plus a bunch of fava beans.

Here is the cover crop mixture I used, Green Manure Seed Mixture:

I really needed to use two packages of this per rotation.

What it looks like now:

It’s looking nice and green and fluffy in this one! We dig the cover crop in on Sept 3rd and plant another crop immediately. The front center raised bed will most likely get whacked to make way for some new McMaster-Carr insanity in the form of more huge galvanized steel troughs.

oh! I need to figure out where to put my garlic. I was inspired by the Bay Area Gardening book who said she managed some huge amount of garlic one year. I am eager to try this in our side yard. I will probably do a batch in the side yard and a batch somewhere in the back just to compare.

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Link from rabittooth
via Make
*dies laughing*

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Before I go to bed I grind the beans coarsely and add them to the french press with cold water. I do not depress the plunger. When I get up I depress the plunger and pour myself a perfect cup of coffee.

My hot french press coffee is somehow never right. Am I grinding the beans to coarsely? Too fine? Is my water the wrong temperature? I know not.

There is no way to mess up this cup of coffee.Try it and report back to me, was it not perfect?!

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These Biviel ankle boots are very sweet, maybe too sweet:

Both of these Fluveog boots are awesome but will they work with my weird stumpy legs? I would have to go try them on.

totally want to have something or somewhere to wear these hilarious red Steve Maddon shoes, hahaha:

I almost bought these Steve Maddons in blue when they went on sale but then didn’t as obviously I have no need of them… now I regret it, but this black patent version is still cute…

These Chia Mihara cuties combine the best of those red ones AND give me the blue I am looking for.

These pink studio shoesies are blue and pretty cute.

And I hope that someone somewhere in the world is rocking these absurd hooker victorian shoes…

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You Bazaar is just around the corner! Next weekend, November 2nd at the San Francisco County Fair Building (Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park) local crafters, toy and plush designers and other indie artists will be showcasing and selling their work. Oh, and there will also be some craft workshops at You Bazaar! They all look really good! I’m looking forward to checking out the fortune cookie one since I am secretly obsessed by plush food.

Please tell your friends and family! Blog about it if you have a blog!
Here are all the details and you are welcome to cut and paste the following text and badge to add to your blog.

Sunday November 2nd 2008
10:00am – 5:00pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

FREE ADMISSION

You Bazaar! will be on November 2nd 2008 from 10am to 5pm at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. You Bazaar! will feature 30 select craft vendors selling quality handmade wares and a series of rotating workshops throughout the day with some of your favorite plush designers. While we would like to use this event to promote plush art we welcome all crafters to apply for a vendor space. This will be a fun family friendly event to kick off the Plush You SF Show, opening Friday, November 7th 2008 and excite customers for the holiday shopping extravaganza Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco on Sunday, November 30th 2008

Check out the Vendor List!
Get directions!
Peruse You Bazaar Crafty Workshops!

Oh and don’t forget to check out the SF Bazaar Bizarre blog for updates on other local bay area craft fairs, crafty business tips and interviews of crafters (by me!).

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I was in Peidmont Fabrics the other day when my hand reached out for this gorgeous Liberty of London cotton lawn print. I mean look at it?!!! Doesn’t your heart go out to it? However, my hand trembled and quaked as I check the price tag at 37.00 a yard. Instead of a dress then, I bought a tiny bit and made some handkerchiefs. Raise your hand if you think I am nuts.

Then i made a tiny one. Raise your hand if you have changed your mind.

The handkerchief goes really nicely with the pair of delicate rose colored with pearl trim spats I just made too.

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“Tie Silk is Back for one Final Engagement
You love tie silk, we love silk, everybody loves tie silk. The East Bay Depot has gotten in its final donation of glorious silk swatches. Thousands of samples with bright colors, designs, and patterns. This time we have extra large samples in addition to our usual packs of rolled sqaures. Bulk priced at $6.00 a pound.”

Also! Major alert! they have 5,000 empty toilet paper tubes! Woot!

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Jen of Volatile Gas World and

Maggie of  ‘Stop! Take some time to think…’.

I’ll email to get your addresses. Now, Jen I certainly have some good ideas of what to send but Maggie I don’t know at all. So I will have to go read her archives to get an idea. I think that’s a lot of fun. I like to try to guess things that people will like althoug how spot on I ever am is debatable… but the fun is in thinking about it.

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The fair is November 2nd at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park and is focusing on hand made Plush Art. Here is the description from the web site:

You Bazaar! will be on November 2nd 2008 from 10am to 5pm at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.  You Bazaar! will feature 30 select craft vendors selling quality handmade wares and a series of rotating workshops throughout the day with some of your favorite plush designers. While we would like to use this event to promote plush art we welcome all crafters to apply for a vendor space. This will be a fun family friendly event to kick off the Plush You SF Show, opening Friday, November 7th 2008 and excite customers for the holiday shopping extravaganza Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco on Sunday, November 30th 2008.

Go on over to the SF Bazaar Bizarre blog to see my first interview. I can guarantee that you will fall in love with Planet Tokki and it’s creator, not only is her plush art divine but the complex and detailed background of Planet Tokki will make you giggle and swoon.

Be sure to come visit the You Bazaar! Fair on November 2nd!

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Read my previous post about our planned labyrinth here. We chose a spot a little closer to the Container house as the labyrinth ended up being a bit bigger than I thought. I _think_it ended up being about 16 feet across each spiral.

We spent two days hauling rocks and gently arguing about how to lay them out. At the end of two days we had a perfectly laid out 5 Auspicious clouds labyrinth with one layer of rocks denoting the walls. All we have to do is fill out the walls with more rocks and get gravel and sand for the pathways.

How to build a meditation labyrinth using only some beer, a golf cart and a few river rocks:

Step One: get beer and a big flat space:

Okay seriously… I read around on the internets to see how other people did it but didn’t find a whole lot. So, just now, in searching for the site that was helpful I found a couple more that look good, here they are:

Labyrinth Enterprises FAQ

Labyrinthos

Labyrinth Society

KT weed wacked and we raked and moved large obstacles form the area.

We started out with a rope with tape marked every 18 inches. Rebar staked in the center help the rope in place as we used inverted tip marking spray paint to mark the perimeter.

Of course, I picked a complicated none standard design for the labyrinth. The design has 5 spiral arms and so we  marked 5 lines at 72 degrees (aprox) and along each of these lines we marked each 18 inch segment with the spray paint.

I had decided hat we would draw each spiral arm from the center out and that seemed to work fairly well although I believe the engineers in the group did not agree. One of the best parts of this was seeing how my friends all differently went about working on this large group project. I think we all did pretty well for a group of horrible OCD control freaks.

The best part was that Acrobat snuck back after we all left an RE-DID much of it. Hahaa.

We hauled rocks from the river bed to outline the walls and we will fill in with the more eventually. If you can get free materials like that I highly recommend it. Have you ever priced rocks? They are expensive! Sand and gravel will mark the path and a friend has just offered some pretty sounding paving stones as well. Which is great because I was originally envisioning paving stones but then did the aforementioned pricing…

September is flitting by so I need to get back up there before it gets to cold and the rains start

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surprise gift in the mail!!

Originally uploaded by not halfway there
I got the best package in the mail form bebellyboo last week.

Check it out:
Chocolate cookies, book for Jack, toy for jack (i’ve been wanting one of these but never managed to buy one), 2 awesome fun fabrics (mermaids! fashion girls!), and some fabric pastels and fabric pen.

All very cool and totally stuff I get myself. I think Bebellyboo and I have been reading each other since right before our babies were born. There was some point when I was pregnant when I was terrified and desperately looking for other people in my same situation and people just ahead of me. So Bebellyboo was right where I was and also crafty and fun and although she does occasionally claim she is taking a blogging break I always know she will come back.

*Updated*
I received my PiF gift from 3Giraffes this week! It’s pretty cool. One is the mood magnets. My bathroom door is metal so this will be perfect for that. Except why is there no “Frumpy” option?!!? I’m screwed!

Okay, the other thing is this book “embellishing techniques and projects”. I would never buy this book for myself, although I do not know why because I LOVE IT and have had a great time looking through it. the projects are cute, the style is fun and it has real actual useful information about sewing and craft tools and materials. And I’m not sure if the model shown through out the book is the author, but either way she is totally cute and the blue shoes she is wearing on page 66 make me die with envy. I have been looking for blue shoes in just such a style for EVA. not that I have anywhere to wear them…
WEll that was off topic… moving right along… here is a picture of the gift!

Thank you 3giraffes!

*updated*
SO!
I will now hold a DOUBLE PiF contest because I’m a sucker for going to the post office.

To enter leave a comment. Er… on Monday I will pick TWO WINNERS (!) with a random number generator and that person will have to tell me their snail mail address (muahahaha) so that I can send them a little gift.
then, unless they are super grumpy, they should hold their own contest.

so leave a random comment please!

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I really like how each size has it’s own pattern paper. I would have been seriously annoyed it I had to use chalk to size it. This one is size 2.

I used some left over black fleece that was Vim’s (I think left over from his scary-ass bunny costume). And I took apart the very first thing I ever sewed with my crappy kenmore – a blue corduroy ‘body pillow’ pillow case. I was pretty proud of it then but since I no longer use the comforter that matched it I figured I was in the clear to rip it up. I also used the cute bunny buttons that I bought for Vim (i can’t remember why I bought them).

It;s kinda pimpin’ with it’s shawl-esque collar, dontcha think?!

I am planning on making Jack a ‘smoking jacket’ version. Black velvet with pink tie material will look outrageously awesome on him I’m thinking.

I recommend the sew baby wonder jacket pattern. The look and feel of this jacket are so easily altered by the materials, I guess that is true for anything… but I really like the way his jacket turned out. It’s cute and cozy for him and I feel pleased that I was able to make it.

I’ve started a new one already with this baby wale corduroy and some brown minky.

My next project for jack will be a pair of pants made form this fabric… heh.

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When you sign you you get lots of functionality that is easy to use. So you can post your recipes and share them and look at other peoples recipes as well and recipes have a comment section which is good for asking people questions. You can blog about food too which is nice because sometimes I just have stuff to SAY about food or I want to post a review of a restaurant. The community is helpful and smart, people comment often and post often and that has kept it fun for me. You can also post pictures and videos and search by ingredient.

Here are some good posts:

ye olde chocolate cream cheese cookies recipe from my past

bacon is natures candy post. hahahah so true!

My family’s spinach pie recipe! DROOL.

A really yummy sounding lychee lemon drop reciipe.

Go check it out y’all! I want to share recipes and stuff with you!

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Five Auspicious Clouds

Originally uploaded by not halfway there
A while back I told KT that I would try to plan out a labyrinth for the ranch property. KT, MamaPajama and I scouted out a decent location near Kt’s house in progress.

I’m not exactly sure what prompted me to want to do this. Labyrinths are cool but this is actually a pretty big project and I’m not quite able to get my mind around how much work it will be. Supposedly there will be a bunch of other people there to help? I hope? If there are other people then I think it will be fun and rewarding.

There are a few web sites out there detailing how to create a labyrinth and most of them use the 7-ring classical pattern. I want to use the pattern pictured here even though I have never seen another labyrinth using it. In the picture the black line will end up being the path you walk. I like how it will make you visit the center of the whole thing 5 times and that five other times you will visit the center of the particular spiral you are in. Okay that sentence was sort of grammatically confusing but I am too lazy to rewrite it.

So my problem now is to figure out how to lay it out and build it. Here’s what I’m thinking so far.

How to Build the Five Auspicious Clouds Labyrinth
Materials:
string, rebar, gravel, spray paint, shovels

Offsite:
knot a string (lenght being the radius of the labyrinth) marking the points of the path

Onsite:
Measure whole area of labyrinth
plant rebar, one in center, one at each of five points on outer edge
dig out an inch or so of earth ( ?)
use string and spray paint to start marking out the path, have 5 cans of paint so that five people can be doing this part at once. after marking the initial points the rest can be freehand i think.
use dug out earth to pile on ‘walls’
use gravel and river stones to mark the path

After:
shrine-y thing in the very center. maybe a really nice pinkish rock from the river as a large flat table-y surface
benches around area
sign with suggested usage/rules?

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This is primarily a social conference, eh? We all want to see everyone in their cute outfits and shoes and we want to be admired too. Although I do need to look at the schedule again to see if there are even any vaguely technical sessions beside the ‘make over tent’.

I’ll be wearing cute dresses and skirts so I better shave my legs, get my eyebrows waxed and a mani/pedi or and redye my hair probably. I’m sure I have roots from hell.

My mom has posted  a picture of her own shoe dilemma.

Also, I need to finish sewing some stuff for the swap meet, clean my house since my mom will be here TOMORROW and entertain a baby with the attention span of a doodle bug. Good luck me! HAhaha. I predict that 1 or none of these things will get done today.

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Yesterday on my way home from the girls weekend at the ranch I stopped to get something to drink and when I got back in my car I realized that I had not looked in a mirror for a good three days. So I had to quickly check to make sure I didn’t have a beer can stuck in my hair or whatever.

I got to sleep in for TWO DAYS! Woo! It was great except for the fact that I didn’t sleep in. The first day the sun hit me smack in the eyeball at dawn and the second day there was clearly a bear or 5 outside my window right at dawn and I never got back to sleep really.

NO MATTER. Our schedule included some heavy duty beer drinking, card playing and reading. With some napping thrown in for good measure. It was my perfect dream weekend of loafing with no one around to be all ‘Let’s do a PROJECT!!’. instead, blissful slacking with no guilt.

I’m impressed with all they have done up there on the ranch! Everyone has their space and is developing it nicely. I LOVE the yurt and I long for it. And I LOVE KT’s container house and covet it!

I signed up to do a project for ‘spurningman’, which is were everyone (okay, not everyone) is going this year instead of the dusty too crowded lame-ass themed burningman. I’ll be making a labyrinth in the 5 auspicious clouds pattern. So I have to figure out how to do that! Vim will help me.

The only thing that make me nervous is that it means I will have to be up there with Vim and Jack of  ‘he who will not sleep in anything other than a full sized crib’ fame. I’m thinking I will buy a cheap ass full sized crib and leave it up there. That way other people with babies will get to use it whenever they go up.

These fucking thistles are teh suck:

I did some drawings the second day even though it meant getting way to close to about 50 million bees.

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I’ve noticed that many people in my comments for th PIF contest ARE not going and maybe think that it is a conf for ‘professional’ bloggers. It ain’t! Also, they are having kickass childcare on site this year!  I will not be taking advantage of it tho as for friday we will just get a subsidized sitter from Vim’s work to come take care of him at home.

I’m not a newbie so after I drop my mom off at that party I will head downstairs to the this party!

I’m so glad my mom is coming I can’t even tell you. I think she’ll have a good time AND I can stash all my costume changes in her room. I’m still on the fence about which sessions to attend and I suspect I will spend a fair amount of time hanging out in whatever common areas just screwing around.

I’m so excited to meet new people tho!  New craft bloggers?! New snarky moms??! Other awesome women?! Heelllooo! I feel almost perky about it.

I’ll be the one with the fake blue and blonde dreads ponytail handing out stickers. You can have a ‘fuckity fuck’ one or an ‘I love my screamything’ one! Come say HI.

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Anyway. It comes prestained as it is one of Vim’s old ratty ones. HIlarious! Vim is super cute when he sews.

Already i have completed a bunch of basic mending tasks that have been sitting around in my sewing room waiting for me. Some for actual YEARS have been waiting to completed. Also many of the decorative stitches have been tested and gloated over.

I swear.. sewing with this thing is sweet. Right now I have it on the kitchen table because the sewing room is in CHAOS as i rearrange and organize. I didn’t want that thing to happen where I put off projects because my room isn’t clean. So for now it’s on the kitchen table.

What shall my next project be!!! I’m thinking I will whip out a bunch of baby blankets and then sew myself a dress.

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