How to Make a Hat or Look What These Girls are Doing!

This is a great video and the ladies from Paul's Hat Works are wonderful. It is on the site "Science in the City - Exploratorium TV."

As someone trying to make "Hat Making" into a living, I am so very proud of these women.

Excellent work!

Oh, and Mr. Penguin too.

The Chicken or the Hat? Artist Judith M. Lindenfelser

There are a couple of things that I have loved all my life, hats and chickens being on that top 10 list.  Lindenfelser allows me to post both on the same page. She is a Milliner that keeps chickens in Alaska, okay that is 3 things, chickens, hat making, and Alaska.  My father was stationed there in WWII and though I have never been there I have always dreamed of the Alaska my father knew and loved.

"Tales From the Coop - Breakfast Reading is a collection of essays that revolve around Lindenfelser's experience raising chickens and selling eggs in Alaska. She has kept Outside Birds for nearly thirty years and sold their eggs. When her egg customers became curious about the chickens, ducks and geese whose eggs they were eating, Lindenfelser began including a 'Tale from the Coop' with their egg deliveries."

But wait! That is not all. She makes hats!

Judith Lindenfelser knits hats out of Lopi, a long-fiber sheep's wool from Iceland, at her home in Chugiak. Hat styles range from modern, including several with dreadlocks, to vintage, with many reminiscent of the early 1920s. Photos by Joshua Borough

Lindenfelser’s hats all have names. There is a small black cowboy hat named after Dale Evans, the famous cowboy queen of the ’40s. Next to it sits Clara Bow, a cloche, or flapper-style hat, named after the silent films actress. The Lucille Ball hat has antique curlers attached. (So cool!)

Yellow wedding dresses by Elsie Sabb

This is wonderful, yellow.

Don Mangus' "It Only Hurts When I Smirk.": Laurie Hickman Cox (1956-2013)

Don Mangus' "It Only Hurts When I Smirk.": Laurie Hickman Cox (1956-2013): Laurie   Cox     Cox, Laurie Hickman Our joyful companion, wife, mother, sister, and daughter, took her last...

What to do about the color yellow

Update - I found a yellow Henley in cotton. But the yellow is just a little . . . off. Could it be that colors in Thailand are perceived differently than the U.S.? Are modern fabrics incapable of taking on color so it comes out dull? If I could only decide what colors I want to make-up my life. 11/29/2013

Where is Yellow, yummy yellow? I want clothing the color of butter, lemon sorbet, and beaten eggs. I want frothy luscious yellow tulle, cotton, silk, and velvet. Simply gorgeous yellow. Ocher and golds are not yellow. Who decides? There should be uplifting and inspiring pallets, not the colors of lichen, kelp or pewter.

Finding yellow clothing that is not school-bus or fire engine yellow has been difficult over the past few years. Designers have been sticking to the depressing colors of terra-cotta, bluish grey and steel grey. How depressing for people that have a winter complexion and who look good in bright colors. I having been searching for (and would be happy if I found) a buttery yellow t-shirt. Therefore, I feel the fashion industry is holding my self-expression hostage. I resent that I have to follow their color and fabric choices. Surely if they wanted to buy a painting they would not be confined to buying Thomas Kincade.

Some excerpts for the web site "Sensational Color."

Interesting information about Yellow

• Yellow is psychologically the happiest color in the color spectrum.
• In medical terms, a yellow flag indicates a quarantine.
• Yellow Stones: Amber, Calcite, Cat’s Eye, Citrine, Fluorite, Golden Beryl, Golden Yellow Topaz, Golden Tiger Eye, Iron Pyrite, Lemon Chrysoprase, Yellow Celestite, Yellow Danburite, Yellow Garnet, Yellow Jade, Yellow Jasper, Yellow Kunzite, Yellow Muscovite, Yellow Rhodonite, Yellow Sapphire, Yellow Tourmaline.

They must have forgotten Zircon.

• The comic book character Green Lantern was afraid of the color yellow.
• Yellow is the color that means “elevated” in the color-coded threat system established by presidential order in March 2002. This system quickly informs law enforcement agencies when intelligence indicates a change in the terrorist threat facing the United States.

Elevated (Thanks Dan Piraro!)

• 75% of the pencils sold in the United States are painted yellow. Find out why…

Why would Green be afraid of Yellow? Because Yellow is a primary color? 

What I have heard about yellow during my lifetime.

• Yellow spandex was the original color for the X-men's uniforms.
• If a car is yellow it is a "lemon." Ridiculous! I had a car and a truck that were yellow and excellent vehicles.

My first car (used) and my first truck (new).

This is definitely more glamorous.

The first wallpaper I chose when I was a kid was yellow with white flowers.  End.

Mosquito Dunks kill Honey Bees

The City of Dallas is spraying for West Nile again this year. It kills bees too as do the mosquito dunks placed in standing pools and bird baths. With Honey Bee survival often in the news these days and everyone wanting to help save them I would think it would be easy to find a beekeeping specialist to remove the hive and insects. However, it is costly leaving extermination the only option for most.

Texas Honeybee Guild, save residential colonies from extermination, but what if the bees are in the wall of a brick home?  Friends of mine paid $500 the first time to have the wall torn into to get the hive. When the bees returned a second year they had the the bees exterminated and were not happy about having to do that. This week the bees are back for a third time in the same spot on the brick wall as previous years. I decided to investigate and this is what I found.

"After the comb is removed, wash the walls with either ammonia or bleach to remove the pheromones the bees have put on the wood and in the wax left in the wood. The removal of these pheromones reduces the potential for attracting the bees back to this wall."

Lets hope this works to help the bees to make better choices ; )

Repel Mosquitos Naturally

I simply cannot stand Mosquitos buzzing around me, drives me crazy. Last year I tried the Deet Free Mosquito Patch from AgraCo.  Basically it is 300 mg Thiamin B1. Mosquito's do not like it. It stays in the system for 36 hours (you can remove the patch after 24 hrs.) I do not know how much Thiamin B1 you would have to consume if taking the vitamin orally. I thought I read somewhere last year that the U.S. military used this patch in jungle situations because that is what convinced me to try it. It worked for me. Granted it was the end of the season, but I did not have a swarm buzzing around my head (and that drove me crazy) in the garden.

"AgraCo Technologies' new Mosquito Patch is a unique, safe and natural way to repel mosquitoes, gnats and flies. There are no chemicals, pesticides or insecticides in the patch. It contains 300 mg. of Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)."