Longer days, warm twilight evenings, sweet smell of fresh grass, crickets lull you to sleep. School is out, summer is here – Summertime ~ may it last and last.

Orange Victorian Pagoda Para… Strazor $64	Large Picnic Basket – Englis… CrolAndCo $85	Herbal Tea – Summer Sunset OwensAcres $8.5	digital sundial ShakespeareSun… $85
All Natural Bug Spray, insec… TheLittleRagam… $8	PICNIC Blanket in Retro Gree… SewnNatural $140	Dark Seas . extra large gicl… tastesorangey $65	Lil’ Sandy Bottoms – Tru… TurtleSoupComp… $20
Pink poppies…custom Tea Dr… sohomode $180	Lemon Chalcedony Cluster Nec… friedasophie $49	CARINO. Gladiator sandals / … BaliELF $80	orange gingham plaid sunglas… holdenism $60
The Endless Summer – 8×12 Su… FourTreesPhoto… $23	Made to Order Vintage Inspir… monetpaisley $40	Repurposed Burlap Coffee Bea… OneWomanStudio $98	Peppermint Sun Protector CedarCreekOrga… $18

Every week we gather a handful of treasures around a theme, from Etsy - an online marketplace featuring handmade wares, vintage items, and supplies for making. Weekly treasuries are normally featured here on Mondays.  You can click on the images above and be taken to a place on Etsy where there is more information and pictures about that item. Crispina’s online shop is located on Etsy along with a whole ton (like over 800,000) of other handmakers, vintage resellers and material retailers. If you have a minute, leave a comment we love to hear your input – it is always so nice to hear from you and build community right here in cyberspace!  Join us in Supporting Handmade, Recycled, Organic, and Locally Produced wares for living.

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I always found it hard to find my father a gift, when I asked him what he wanted, he’d simply say, “Just a day with my family”. Well, too bad, Dads. You’re getting spoiled this year.

San Francisco Cuff Links – S… StudioLaTouche $24	Leather and Waxed Canvas Too… MercyLeatherWo… $88	Mens Shaving Set, Blue Musta… MiriHardyPotte… $78	Men Shaving Soap. SPICED MA… EarthyElegance… $5.5
Denim Apron for Men- Cone M… attitudeandapr… $60	Screw Flowers – Screwdriver … HennelPaperCo $4	Fishing tackle box float cas… PyroArtBySdew $17.5	Dad Mug Ceramic Handmade Pot… jewelpottery $27
Handmade Cleaver Kitchen Kni… GeminiDragonfl… $235	Beard Conditioner Oil Wild M… WildRoseHerbs $19.95	Handmade Beer bottle six pac… WoodaCooda $59	Working 1918 Hampden Antique… TimeAntiquaria… $179
Men’s Toiletry Bag from … FritzandFraule… $68	Midcentury French Large Wood… LaLoupiote $150	Minimalist Wool felt Wallet-… Ecolution $24	Happy (Farter’s) Father&… WildClove $2.5

Every week we gather a handful of treasures around a theme, from Etsy - an online marketplace featuring handmade wares, vintage items, and supplies for making. Weekly treasuries are normally featured here on Mondays.  You can click on the images above and be taken to a place on Etsy where there is more information and pictures about that item. Crispina’s online shop is located on Etsy along with a whole ton (like over 800,000) of other handmakers, vintage resellers and material retailers. If you have a minute, leave a comment we love to hear your input – it is always so nice to hear from you and build community right here in cyberspace!  Join us in Supporting Handmade, Recycled, Organic, and Locally Produced wares for living.

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

So the question is not Paper or Plastic, the question is, how to ensure remembering the reuseable bags.  In Ireland there is a $.75 per bag tax that incentivizes citizens enough that disposable bag use has diminished to almost zero since 2002.  Way to go!

I have a simple pattern to make very inexpensive reusable bags.  I stock my car, my husband’s truck, home and work with a sack of these so they are always where they are needed.  Plus, if you loan them out they provide incentive to your friends to do their part as well.

Leave a comment below with your ideas on how we can reduce our needs for single use plastics.  To thank you for your thoughts we’ll enter you in this month’s random drawing!  The winner will receive a complete re-useable bag making kit!  This includes: a used (and clean!) t-shirt, a brand new pair of fabric cutting scissors, a handsewing needle and thread (threaded for you to get started right away!),printed directions for cutting and making re-usable bags for all your needs, AND a sample of a finished bag so you have something to follow!  Wowsers!  The LUCKY WINNER will be announced on Friday afternoon – on my facebook page.  Winners must have a USA shipping address or be willing to pay shipping and they mustn’t have won anything from here in the last 12 months.

Stop back on the first Wednesday of each month for Give-Away Wednesday!  Spread it around, bring your friends by – we are all in this together – working our way to preserving clean air, food, and water for all!!

I feel uplifted when I  hear David Suzuki speak on how we have the ability to create a new way and he makes me aware that I HAVE to take a positive role – present solutions, teach perspective options, lead.  It is our duty as truth seers to share our visions.  No judgment, no us vs. them just a new way to see things – ReConsumerEyes.

Recycling Cotton T-Shirts with Peek-A-Boo Embroidery

Have you seen the things that I make from recycled wool sweaters?  I started doing that in 1987 while a student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  Back then it was my mission to introduce the idea of recycling.  There were no blue bins on any curbside and recycling was not a household word.  The ‘bottle bill’ had been introduced in Massachusetts in 1983 and all the talk about that piqued my interest in environmental affairs.

Since the 1980s things have changed in so many ways – most people in our culture have curbside recycling available to them.  Maybe, even, most people actively recycle their household waste.  A movement of crafters creating from all manner of discarded materials has certainly developed.   In this span of time, I have learned a whole bunch about our solid waste habits, and specifically, textile waste stream.

Since the advent of Polar Fleece, the growth of our cultural turn toward reuse, the number of wool sweaters has dwindled – few, and far between at most thrift shops.  What was once a true waste material, wool sweaters (or wool knits, as they are known in the ‘rag’ trade), have become a sought after commodity.

So what do I say to that?

I say FRICKEN YAY!

There are so many people recycling wool sweaters that I don’t need to do that any more!

(Some days, I have to confess, I say Fricken YIKES !! – EVERYONE seems to be wearing plastic clothing without out even a thought of the environmental or health impact/s)

Next, I head to the thrift shop and see what is prevalent – and cheap.  What are people discarding that is prolific and nice to work with – (to me that means it is natural fiber)?

T-Shirts!  Sweatshirts!  Corduroys! Oh My!

Took me a little while to configure design and structural elements to enhance these new non-wool elements.  Peek-A-Boo Embroidery is the best yet!  Amazing possibilities come to mind!  From detailed panels that add flair (and structure) to simply constructed handmade garments, to intricate all over embellishment establishing regal richness, the quality of the finished product will blow your mind!  There is something quite magical about turning common cotton t-shirts that we all have WAY too many of, into fantastic art to wear.

It is so much fun and garners such a sense of accomplishment, to witness such transition, I have drawn up a day-long lesson, teaching my process.  On June 15, in my studio – located at 40 Melville Street in Pittsfield, MA I will be holding a Peek-A-Boo Embroidery workshop.  Students will choose to make a simple long sleeved pullover, skirt, or cute Dixie Dress in whatever size/color they want.   Garments are completely handsewn.  There is no experience necessary.  Hop off your screen, sign up at Crispinaffrench@gmail.com or 413-236-9600 and learn to stitch magic into your wardrobe.  

The workshop runs from 10-4:30pm on June 15^th.  The cost is $195 which covers tuition as well as the use of all tools and materials.  Students are asked to bring a bag lunch.

Thank you to Jane Feldman for the center image of Bridget Conry wearing a Peek-A-Boo top I made.  Thank you Bridget too!

I feel uplifted when I  hear David Suzuki speak on how we have the ability to create a new way and he makes me aware that I HAVE to take a positive role – present solutions, teach perspective options, lead.  It is our duty as truth seers to share our visions.  No judgment, no us vs. them just a new way to see things – ReConsumerEyes.

– Clotheslines –

When our family was living in our Tree-Top home at the rectory, our electric bill was $45 a month.  I bitched at Chris for 5 years about the fact that there was a brand new dryer sitting, unused, in the laundry closet that he just needed to install.   During that time I fell in deeply in love with my clothesline – and the warm weather that made hanging laundry pleasant and efficient.  Being that we lived on the third floor, Biggie, hung me a line from our kitchen window out to a maple tree near the train tracks.   It took two good-sized loads to fill it.  Brightly-colored prayer-flaggish kids clothes shook love and innocence on that neighborhood, which was in so much need.  With this realization, my dryer-installation nagging waned and I fell more deeply in love with my hubby.

We moved to Fairyland on the mountain, where there was a washer/dryer and all, and our electric bill is $100 a month!

Not much else changed as far as our consumption goes.  So, as soon as our deep snow cover gave way, I installed a good long clothesline. This line has taken a while to become useful, needed to replace the first faulty line-tensioner I bought, and Biggie helped with a few tweaks.  But then, YAY!  I love to hang laundry.  Yesterday I took in a load of wash that had been hanging for a week.  It had finally dried – it rained, and rained, and cold rained last week.   This week is off to a sunny start!

Hanging laundry outside when the weather is chilly made me appreciative of the warmth of my tiny kitchen on Melville and the clean laundry stacked on the kitchen table.  When it’s really cold or rains there are options for indoor clothes drying.  They do require indoor space and if you plan for it, drying clothes indoors is easy.  In winter, when our air gets so very dry, the moisture is welcome.  We have a large wooden drying rack and it might be a good idea to get a clothesline going in our attached garage for next winter.

Despite what may be going on outside your window, it IS Memorial Day weekend – and the start of the outdoor party season. While the snow (!!!?!) melts atop Mount Greylock are a few things to help you start the season out right.

Tree swing Woodnen oak swing… lacunawork $100	Handmade Giant Toppling Timb… Yardtastic $89	LAWN DARTS Summer Yard Game … MagoosGeneralS… $125	Vintage Trac Ball Racket- Re… RobotRescue $24
Kubb-The Viking Game Natural… greengames $78	SALE // 8 vintage Retro BOC… svelteSTUFFj $47.15	Custom Canvas Teepee- 4 Side… TwoFeetFirst $120	Wrought Iron BBQ Tool Grill … DeschutesIronF… $25
Wine Barrel Adirondack Chair Barreldecor $495	Wooden Bowling Set, Waldorf … IndieBambinos $40	Domino yard art, Three Concr… LindasYardArt $55	vintage scout boomerang industrialreli… $22
612 Hibachi Grill Kotaigrill $475	Vintage Set of 3 Badminton R… WeatheredGoods $15	Wooden Molkky Game kevinscabins $30	Vintage Croquet Set with Six… boivin628 $67

Every week we gather a handful of treasures around a theme, from Etsy - an online marketplace featuring handmade wares, vintage items, and supplies for making. Weekly treasuries are normally featured here on Mondays.  You can click on the images above and be taken to a place on Etsy where there is more information and pictures about that item. Crispina’s online shop is located on Etsy along with a whole ton (like over 800,000) of other handmakers, vintage resellers and material retailers. If you have a minute, leave a comment we love to hear your input – it is always so nice to hear from you and it helps us know what more about your interests!

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Our Berkshire Hills had a slow start to a mostly gray spring. Here is a little bit of sunshine to keep spirits up! Memorial Day is right around the corner along with all sorts of parades, festivals and picnics. Oh sunshine, soak it up, don’t burn.

Baby Sun Bonnet IslaRoseDesign… $19.95	GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE- worko… True2theHeart $25	Sunshine State Handmade All … StarboardSoapC… $5	Handmade Linen Rose Bifold W… JuliRu $61
Sunshine Yellow – Long, Thin… EclecticShop $12.5	You are my sunshine 8×10 Pri… yellowbuttonst… $20	1960′s dress/ 60′s y… LivedIn $46	GOOD DAY, SUNSHINE Necklace … FeelingWild $22
Sunshine Bow AmeliesBowtiqu… $6	Rag rug from recycled t-shir… TheSomedayHous… $70	Wooden Sunshine Puzzle Imaginationkid… $13	Ceramic Clay Textured Button… CaliforniaMudS… $8
Good Morning Sunshine 24×16 … SensingMajesty $74	Sunshine Pixie Bonnet Size … Pitterpants $22	Felted Flower Brooch Pin Cor… softadditions $12.6	Sun Umbrella Wedding Parasol… MyDreamsMatter $75

Every week we gather a handful of treasures around a theme, from Etsy - an online marketplace featuring handmade wares, vintage items, and supplies for making. Weekly treasuries are normally featured here on Mondays. (This week there was some sort of cyber glitch with the code generator I use so Tuesday is the day!) You can click on the images above and be taken to a place on Etsy where there is more information and pictures about that item. Crispina’s online shop is located on Etsy along with a whole ton (like over 800,000) of other handmakers, vintage resellers and material retailers. If you have a minute, leave a comment about your favorite featured item – it is always so nice to hear from you!

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Matthew & Kyra Hart, proprietors of Overmeade Gardens

940 East Street, Lenox, MA 01240

You can reach us by phone, 413-446-3612

Or, on our website, http://www.overmeadegardens.com

Or, by email, info@overmeadegardens.com

1. Who are you?  What do you do?  What is your line of work?

My name is Matthew “Matty” Hart. During the spring and summer months I farm vegetables with my wife Kyra on our families farm in Lenox. All of our produce is sold at our farm stand, local restaurants and markets. During the winter months I spend as much time as possible in the wood shop as I can, carving spoons and making fan birds along with the occasional rocker or side chair. The woodworking I do is called green woodworking as all of the wood is worked fresh or tree wet, using traditional tools such as axes, knives, drawknives and spoke shaves.

My early life was spent here on the farm. After high school I did a fair amount of wandering around and being as carefree as possible before attending Sterling College in Vermont where I studied sustainable resource management. After Sterling I settled in Northern California where I lived off the grid for a number of years while working for my dear friend Rob who introduced me to finer carpentry and a bit of woodwork. When our oldest daughter was around the age of four we decided it was time to head back east to be around our families and see if we could make a go of it farming.

 2. How do you know Crispina?  Tell a story – how did you meet?  When?  Where?  Who introduced you?

  Like many folk around here I heard of Crispina long before meeting. The first time I remember meeting her was at the Dream Away Lodge in Becket a few years ago, where we were introduced by our dear friend Daniel Osman.

 3. Who/what has been most influential in your work?

  The green wood workers and carvers of England and Europe are my biggest influence, because of their passion for keeping these wonderful folk crafts alive.  I’m inspired that in the midst of this modern world we live in they have somehow kept alive crafts from a time when a hatchet was a tool you couldn’t live with out and everyone’s tools of daily use were still made by someone, not something.  

 4. If you could (you probably are) send(ing) a message to the world what would it be?

 Enjoy life, as best you can, as far as I know, now is it.

5. When and how did you know to follow the path you have chosen?

 I haven’t really chosen any one path, though I do really love working wood and farming. When I first started green woodworking I just wanted to make chairs and disliked making spoons. Now I can sit for hours making spoons thinking about the shape and use. Discovering my love for spoon making led me down the path of finding fan birds. There were many first birds that failed and wound up tossed into the kindling pile, albeit in a definite fit of rage. Now I make a lot of birds with few failures and can enjoy it for days on end. I guess I must have known this path a long time ago. It is one of discovering new things all the time.

 6. Where do you find your inspiration/motivation to continue?

I get my motivation because I love doing what I do and it’s very immediate. Farming for a living you have very few controls and have to constantly readjust for the changing circumstances. The same goes for green woodworking in that the tools that I use have to be used in a way that goes along with how the wood can be worked, there is this random flow to it.  I find the spontaneity of it all really beautiful. Also the satisfaction when people come to our booth at a show and there is just this one spoon that fits perfectly to their hand or the shape is exactly what they are attracted to, then another person comes along and it’s a different spoon for all the same reasons.

7. Aside from working, how do you spend your time?

 With my family or taking walks on the farm, the occasional night out to see our friends up at the Dream Away. I do really enjoy a few minutes when time allows for chicken gazing. We have a flock of fourteen birds and if you have never had the opportunity, chickens are hilarious to spend some time around.

8. What is one of your fondest memories?  Why?

Meeting my partner Kyra. When I met Kyra I was young and I knew that my life had changed forever especially when we had our little girl. But Kyra and I do almost everything together, we farm together and we work in the woodshop all winter together and she is a part of everything I do. For having the friendship, relationship, mutual aspirations and goals it’s just beyond words.

 9. Do you have a prized possession?  What is it?

I have a great fondness for my carving tools. I get to watch them age with use and develop more character over time. That they will outlast me and hopefully be of good use to someone else down the road gives me great joy. They hold onto the years of work in a very quiet beautiful way. There was this one adze that I purchased second or fourth hand, the edge was all warn back and the hand had been fashioned out of a bent branch of hickory so the grain was lined up perfectly, I guess its just the story that these tools hold if you know what you are looking for.

10. Tell about a magical moment that comes to mind when you look back on your life experience?

 Sunrise coming up over the White Mountains in the middle of winter viewed from the summit of camels hump in Vermont.

 11. If you were able to prepare a meal for anyone – dead or alive, who would it be?  What would you want to discuss with that person?  What would you serve?

 My Grandfather, Doc Baver.  I would want to just talk to him about his history to get a sense of who he was. He is something of an enigma to me as he passed the same year that I was born. What I know of him is that he grew up on a large farm in Pennsylvania before becoming a doctor and serving in Burma during world war two. He later moved to the Berkshires and was the medical advisor for western Massachusetts and was one of the last to do house calls and accept bread as payment for medical treatment. It was his missing land and farming that led him to purchase the farm we are on now from one of his patients whose husband had passed and couldn’t keep everything going. He is a piece of my history that truly shapes my life that I know very little about. I would serve something fresh from the garden along with a good steak and some red wine.

 12. What is your favorite color?

 Green.

 13. What place is your favorite travel destination?

The ocean is a favorite destination, any ocean will do but some where on the pacific coast is especially nice.

 14. What is a goal or focus for your next 12 months?

My focus for the next twelve months is to enjoy my life as best as I can and do good work along the way. To spend time amongst friends and family and share the food from our garden and our woodwork with the community we live in.

 15. How would you like to be different from who you are now, in 10 years?

I would like to either gain or loose wisdom which ever is more beneficial. I would like to do the things that I do with out any worry of gain or loss and just be doing them because that’s what I do and I enjoy it.  I would like to take part in helping people understand the tools and other products that can be created from their local woodlands into items of daily use or beauty.

 16. Paint a picture of your legacy.  How would you like to be remembered or thought of?

By a few old kitchen tools, a fan bird in a window somewhere and a rocking chair in the corner that someone’s great, great grandchild can’t remember where it came from.

 17. Do you have an upcoming event or significant happening that you would like to promote with your blog posting?  When?  Where? Details and contact information please.

You can find us at Overmeade Farm, 940 East Street, Lenox, MA, 01240. The farm stand is open June thru October.

Or at the Lenox Farmer’s Market every Friday from 1:00pm to 5:00pm at Shakespeare and Company, 70 Kemble St. May 24^th thru October 11^th.

I feel it is our job to seek out and support natural foods in any way we can.  Shop at Farmers’ Markets.  Grow gardens.  Buy a share in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Wild harvest what you can.   Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every public school across this great nation had to grow and preserve the food they served? Think what a wonderful skill set that would impart in our students.  Think of the ripples.

Dandelion Jam

Tools:

Blender or Food Processor (a big knife and elbow grease works just fine too)

10 ½ Pint Canning Jars (or 5 Pint sized jars) with covers

Measuring Spoons and Cups

Grater

Large Soup Pan or Equivalent

Small clean dry cloth (washcloth will work)

 Yeild:

10 half pints (or 5 pints)

Ingredients:

1 Pomona’s Universal Pectin kit

4C. Dandelion Blossoms

6C. Water

4C. Sugar

1C. Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

4TBSP Freshly Grated Ginger Root

Wash the jars and covers in hot soapy water and let dry.

Rinse Dandelion Blossoms in cold water and measure them into a blender canister.  Add water and blend just enough to break up blossoms.  Pour that inot a large saucepan.  Add Lemon Juice, and 3 tsp. calcium water (from Pomona’s Universal Pectin kit).  Stir well.

Measure Sugar into separate bowl and stir in 3tsp Pectin (from Pomona’s Universal Pectin kit).  Stir well to mix evenly.

Heat Dandelion Mixture to a boil.  Add Sugar Mixture and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to be sure the Pectin has completely dissolved.  Continue stirring and return to boil and remove from heat.

Fill jars to ¼” of top.  Wipe rims clean with clean dry cloth and screw on lids.

Put filled jars in a pan full of boiling water that completely covers them and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove jars from water and let cool.  Jam will continue to set as it cools for up to 24 hours.  Check seals to be sure lids are sucked down.  Jam (preserves) will last for months on the shelf and about 3 weeks in the fridge once opened.