Curious

I just found out that my really good friend Melody Girarouard's (whom I met at Macy's) dad went to school with and was best friends with Scott Williams (Suzy's Williams Dad) in Versailles, Missouri. The world is so small.

I liked having a broken foot. It allowed me to be in the middle of a lot more projects.

some food for thought

Did you know that milk naturally has traces of morphine in it? Morphine, codeine and other opiates are naturally produced in cows's livers and end up in their milk. All milk contains casein, a protein that breaks apart during digestion and releases opiates. These opiates exist so that newborns will want to nurse, it actually ensures a bond between mothers and their young.
I have been reading this diet book called Skinny Bitch. I have never read a diet book before and started reading it in the bookstore because I couldn't understand how a diet book could be on the New York Times best seller list. I found the book to be somewhat hilarious (though, as the title suggests it's got some terrible language in it) and bought it. The guy at the checkout counter was like, "hey do you know that this book is all about becoming a vegan" and i was like "pshh, veganism the stupidest thing ever."
After reading about all the meat processing plants and all of the pesticides, disease and crap that is in meat I decided that I would probably never eat meat again. I did it for 2 years without any motivation that I can remember, so now that I actually have a reason it should be a breeze.
I mean all of those stupid billboards up in California that read "pets are people too" always made me really really angry. Mostly because I over generalize that the people who says that kind of stuff are generally pro choice too- which I am not. Anyway, the way that animals are being treated in these meat processing plants is not the way that I believe God intended for us to govern them. I have decided that I cannot be both pro life and a carnivore. The only time I could justify eating meat is if I knew that the animal being slaughtered had been treated humanely and fed completely naturally. i.e. Uncle Andy's sheep.
Someday my body (Lord willing) is going to be the temporary home for a child and right now there is so much crap in it that I can't even conceive of the idea of having a child (though I am sure all of my eggs are no better off than I am).
So as I've been reading this book I have been thinking that there is no possible way that I could give milk up, and I am still not convinced that I could - I mean, I truly am addicted to dairy, especially cheese. But this book is quite convincing that dairy is just as bad as meat. Cows being given steroids so that they produce more than a 100 pounds of milk a day (when they should really only be producing 10 pounds) and being sucked dry and having terrible oozing sores on their udders so that blood and puss mixes with the milk requiring it to be pasteurized which destroys beneficial enzymes and makes calcium less available. Plus if the cows are sick the antibiotics that they are given goes right into their milk production and hence our bodies. Also another study shows that consuming high amounts of dairy blocks iron absorption which leads to iron deficiency - which I am pretty sure I suffer from.
Conclusion - I might really be addicted to milk and need to drink less milk and find some that is truly organic (none of the USDA certified stuff is really legit).
Mom, I think you might enjoy reading this book

a close shave. . .

Lucious got a hair cut. It took about 3 hours. Uncle Andy made shearing the sheep look so easy. I thought this would take 30 minutes top. Perhaps if I had clippers that were a bit more professional. Anyway - he enjoys being w/o his coat, esp since it's so hot outside.

Benevolence

I was helping a customer at Macy's today. I found a pair of jeans for her that she really liked but couldn't afford yet. I asked her to write down her contact information for me so that I could call her when they went on sale. I looked at her email address and it was "servantwarrior2004@yahoo.com." I asked her if her email address had come from the book Servant Warrior. She said that yes it had and then I told her that I hadn't actually finished the book to which she responded, "well the abridged version says 'love Jesus, love others." Then I asked her if she had any places or connections to places to serve. That's when I found out that the City of Phoenix actually has a director of benevolence (or something like it, I can't remember what her official title was) on its board. The we started talking about Love Inc. (which she hadn't heard of . . . and which I didn't really know too much information about surprisingly) and then she told me that the reason she was buying long skirts was because they spent a lot of time in Africa doing relief work, then I told her that my sister in law was working for Wycliff, in the Congo, to make dictionaries, to which she responded that she had just gotten back from being in the Congo. The she started talking about how she has been looking for a person who could talk to former prostitutes about the importance of dressing professional ( I thought she was talking about Arizona at this point) - to which I said that I had a degree in fashion and could probably talk about that for her if she ever wanted me to. Then she started talking about people had randomly started donating sewing machines to her and how she had 30 sewing machines waiting for people to learn how to sew on-but needed someone to instruct them- to which I said that I had been sewing since I was 8 and had made the skirt that I was wearing. And then I realized that she was talking about teaching women in the Congo how to sew so that they could make a living other than by prostituting themselves. So perhaps I am going to the Congo, I don't know. I already feel so blessed by this woman. During the beginning of our conversation when we were talking about places to serve she said, "well, you're already doing that, you are serving us now" and that really broke me down. I just finally feel like I can actually serve the Lord with the talent He has given me and that just never seemed possible until today.
And she wants to talk to the fashion department at Stephens College. And her name is Peggy (of course).

Project 7 of many

Here is the dress that I made out of some old curtains that a lady at work gave to me. Wearing old curtains or an old bedspread is a great way to go green. Of course all the 4-H judges and leaders have been in on that secret for ages. In fact I think 4-h'ers started thinking globally long before it was popular. . . what with the whole, ". . . for my club, my community, my country and my world" pledge.















































































Love always,
Us & The Luscious Lucious

Project 6 of many

This is a swimsuit cover up that I made in exchange for a facial. She wanted something breezy, flowey and fun that was no hassle to get on. She also wanted it to dry quickly and maintain its shape. The fabric is some sort of poly chiffon so it won't wrinkle and should dry quickly. The sleeves can be scrunched or worn kimono style . . . or a mixture of both. The best part about this swimsuit cover up is that I discovered a pretty cool fabric store in the process of making it. They have sales where they sell fabric by the pound. This fabric was $2.99 a yard. . . which is pretty good.


















































































In other news the watermelons are growing very fast and it looks like I'm going to get about 6 of them out of the one plant.