Explorasaurus.

Lately I’ve been wandering around a large yet small city with my camera and incredibly uncomfortable shoes. I’ve enjoyed the whoosh and burst of air that hits you down in the Metro, sunsets over monuments, visiting museums, dancing to old 90s music, dudes that give someone elderly their seat when they teeter totter on the Subway, and long walks with coffee.

The lovely mix of politics and punk, messenger bags and Prada, suits and skateboards has been a total delight to explore. Of course, there have also been not-so-lovely moments, scraping a Secret Service car in Georgetown (getting them to laugh when I asked if their little secret pins were like “flair” was pretty sweet, though) and angry people in the Metro when there was a fire and lots of smoke.

Here are some photos from the past few months, including lots from the 9.12.09 Tea Party where I went to see if their DIY signs were good or not. Personally, I found the majority of the posters either incredibly offensive, misspelled, or misinformed. The reason for my delay in posting these photos? A few days after the rally I discovered some of my relatives were there. Honestly, it took me awhile to try and understand why our views could be so different. At the rally and on the train back to my car, all I heard was hate, hate, hate. Dissent? Go for it. But hatred? There’s no place for that if you expect to have a dialogue and not a shouting match.

[ETA: The above being said, however, there were signs at the rally that were based on fact, not conjecture! Those signs? Sing it! My reactions were based on the anger I saw arising (from listening to a man tell his 4 year old that the government were crooks, to shouts about “commies going to hell”) in the crowd. Seeing so much anger in a public space was personally shocking, although our right as Americans to express disapproval is one I hold dear. For the people upset about what’s going on and voicing their opinion? Again, go for it. Just keep anger out of it. And before you stand up with a sign, it’s always a good thing to know why it says what it does. It’s your chance to state your voice, why not make it properly heard? Let what you carry provoke conversation not anger, understanding not yelling, and dialogue not diatribes.]

Believe what you wish, just be informed as to why you believe that way. What I don’t understand is, why is everything boiled down to religion this “we’re right,” “they’re wrong” dichotomy? Maybe I’m wrong, but aren’t the tenets of love and acceptance found in every religion? If so, how can you honestly say you’re doing God’s (or Allah’s or Jesus’ or the Buddha’s, etc) work when you’re speaking in anger?

The shots here are waiting for a bus with the awesome Through the Eye of the Needle, Metro seats, my Secret Service repaired mirror, and a Tea Party shot. You can see them all over here.

Game Knitting!

I met Lee Meredith, or Leethal, this past spring in Portland and was oh-so-happy to be lucky enough to receive one of her craftgasm patches! This alone was reason enough for a complete craft crush, and then I discovered Bad Movie Bingo, the amazing game she made with her hubby-to-be, Pete Bejarano, which makes really bad movies even better, helping them to fully embrace their badness full on!

And last week, Lee self-published her own e-book, Game Knitting, chock full of projects you can knit in between turns of Clue or Battleship. Color me amazed. Again. At 65 pages for only $9, it’s a steal, and with it you get the added bonus of being the craftiest game player in the room.


If sports betting have piqued your interest, you can start betting on sites like 온라인 카지노 because it’s one of the highly-rated betting sites out there.

For those crafty folk in the DC area, chances are you were at Crafty Bastards yesterday! After spending a few hours helping people make buttons* at the good ship Hello Craft, I bought three things from vendors I’ve swooned over for years: toast plush from My Paper Crane, a fascinator from Giant Dwarf and a Supermaggie.

In case you missed it, check out the photos over here on Flickr. Be sure to check out the b-boy battle photos, too! Apparently if you want to get me to not move for an hour and a half, you must bring a breakdancing competition that reminds me of my childhood. Seriously. It was awesome.

*I made a button for myself that said, “Ask me about my job search,” which kept me giggling despite the somewhat depressing and confidence crushing job hunt that so many of us are on these days. Have yet to wear it out in the non-crafty public. Keep your eyes peeled, DC area people.

Hooray For Moms. And Julia Ward Howe.

The United States observance of Mother’s Day is May 10th. Remember history of Mother’s Day (I had no idea it started as an anti-war day!), that is absolutely beautiful. This Mother’s Day they are having a peace vigil in DC May 9-10, 1pm-1pm. Read more about it over here.





You can read the entire Mother’s Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe over here.


After you’ve read the Proclamation and fallen in love with the awesomeness of Julia Ward Howe, you can learn more about her from the following links:
*Julia Ward Howe dot org
*Julia Ward Howe, in Two Volumes, Houghton Mifflin, 1915.
*Open Collections Project, Harvard University
Be sure to check out the links at the bottom for some amazing work, including…
*Women’s Work in American

So when was the last time you hugged your Mother?

Oh, and local folk, I will be doing an event at McIntyre’s in Fearrington Village (Pittsboro) this Sunday, May 3rd, at 2pm! Do come by and say hi!

*I’ve made 6! 2 to go, I need to hurry as they need to be in DC by the 4th!