Free Cabin Porn

There's been hardly any snow this winter, and I've finally come to accept that I won't be going skiing this year. It feels like spring is here, and whenever the seasons change I start to get pangs of wanderlust.  Since I can't get away from my work long enough to travel anytime in the near future, I am grateful for all this free cabin porn out there on the interwebs. Trolling through page after page of cabins is highly addictive. I recommend you play the following game:

1) Look at the photograph of the cabin without reading the caption below.
2) Try to guess where it is. (I was caught off guard when I thought Slovenia was Montana! How humbling.)
3) If possible, do this with a friend. Backpacking alone is dangerous.

From Stanley Tislavold via Cabin Porn.

 

 

 

 -Melissa

Nature is Amazing

Good morning! I was going to open this post with some angry words about Rick Santorum calling global warming a hoax,followed by more angry words about the gas-drilling industry's invasion of my hometown, but it's the weekend and anger is not my Saturday morning emotion of choice. 


Last week I learned in school that nature is amazing. The earth's atmosphere is full of oxygen because of bacteria that lived two billion years ago. Oxygen in the atmosphere made it possible for lots of exciting new creatures to evolve. Two billion years. Two billion years ago the most general type of cell that we are made of did not even exist yet. Life on earth was completely different. How can we even grasp how long two billion years is? We humans get maybe 80 years, 100 years if we are lucky. That is nothing compared to the age of the earth. 2 followed by 9 zeros. Just think about what it means in time for 2 to be followed by 9 zeros. It's rare for people to get even two zeros in their age. We hardly get any time to live on this amazing planet. 


Look how amazing this network of rivers is. The green parts are mangroves. 

From the BBC series Planet Earth, episode "Freshwater."

And these are snow geese migrating up the east coast of the United States. I love the way the geese look like a low wispy cloud, and the way the marshes contrast with the blue of the water. It's like an analog of what earth looks like from space. 

Also from the BBC series Planet Earth, episode "Freshwater."

                                                        -Melissa

Easy DIY Paper Flower Valentine's Necklace? Yes, Please!

I'm I big fan of paper flower making {here's a number of books that are great resources!}. I've been dabbling in it for the last fifteen years or so (I know you're impressed, but remember the Chinese have apparently been doing it for two thousand years, and the Mexicans have been making them with gusto for centuries....) For Valentine's this year I thought I'd get crafty and make myself a snazzy paper flower pendent. If you're interested in creating something similar, here's my how to:

The finished product!

What you'll need: 
sturdy and beautiful magazine pages 
or pages of old books
needle
thread
scissors
a metal necklace chain or embroidery floss/string

1. Decide the size of your flower, and cut four large petals {as with all things in nature, variation in flowers is the norm, so there's no need to be obsessively precise}. 
2. Cut three smaller petals 
3. Over lay large petals so they touch in center, sew securely together {don't worry about stitches being perfect. But since you are sewing on paper, try not to put the stitches too close so as not to rip the paper}. 

4. Roll the smaller petals into loose cones, and sew each, one at a time, into center of flower. 

5. Lay out necklace chain, or string/ embroidery floss you have cut to size, and place flower where you would like it to lay. 

6. Sew flower to necklace. 
7. Sew bead to center for finishing touch. 
8. Go have dinner with your sweet heart! 


* Marcie

Can we take a moment… and welcome my new CareWearShare partner, Melissa?

Melissa and Marcie in Fay's car, c. 2001

   Picture it… Perkasie… 2000. Two young ladies, who had been in classes together for years, finally saw one another- finally recognized the insane amount of latent friendship potential within. Melissa and I began our acquaintance in Junior High, at the famed Pennridge Central Middle School. Sitting in the lovely Mrs. Kosa’s English class I remember thinking, “aw, this bobbed hair smiley girl is so cool…” Me?  Not so much. Or rather, I was “o cool” inwardly, but was fighting a formidable shyness and lack of a centered self back in those days. But, I digress…

    Aside from a few interactions in Mr. Daniels’ Barbershop select Chorus and the time on a field trip to six flags when riding a roller coaster (which I hate doing by the way) I happened to look over and see her holding the hand of the boy I liked * insert heinous pop song depicting woeful teen heartache* we didn’t have much contact. We moved in our own little spheres until in twelfth grade, life and Mr. Denton Ponzle’s AP Euro History flung us together. With our friend Fay we created a little triad of fun and mayhem.

     Together, we may have shed the shackles of our upright rural exultance; we may have run just a wee bit amuck. We may have left school to go swimming in-between classes, or called out sick and gone to Philly. We may have seized the day and engaged in little glorious acts of rebellion that can only be savored by those whose lives were as Green Gables-sque as you’re likely to find this day and age. Way may have been just about as bad ass as one can be and still make the honor roll ;) And if we were, I have to say it was good for me.  My relationship with these gals and my other high school friends helped me to open up, be freer, and be more me.

     Fast forward ten years and you’d get to the point in the story where our once joy-filled friendship had dwindled to nothing. With the college and subsequent life we had lost contact, until out of the blue I happen to see a message from my Mel-iller saying she was moving to Philly and asking to get together. I made my reply in the affirmative, but it was not without a little trepidation, “What if things were awkward. I mean it had been like ten years….” I had my fears, but on that fateful spring day in 2011 when I opened my door and saw that same bobbed hair and smiley face, I knew it was the same! In these many months since our reunion I've come to see Melissa being back in my life is such a huge blessing! I’ve gone through my share of rough times, and the rekindling of my friendship with Melissa has been an incredible reminder to be open to the unexpected blessings the good Lord may send my way, even in the midst of chaos. Thank you Melissa! And thank you to all of my friends who bring me so much joy!

               *Marcie

A Toast, To Getting Older

On a muddy riverbank south of the Thames there is a pub called The Ship. I am thinking about this pub today because it is my birthday, and because last year this time I was living in London, toasting white wine and sharing a plate of chips with good friends there. My 7th grade crush, now a US air force pilot, came to celebrate with two of his buddies from the force. They were stationed in Germany and up for an adventure to London. Then there were my Aussie friends, who always represent on a night out. Friends who I've worked with, studied with, danced with were there. My friends whose shoulders I cried on re: relationships that weren't working out, they were there too. When I think of all the friends I've had over the years I am overwhelmed. The more I move around, the more my friends begin to represent all that I've done in my life.   


So a year on, my life looks completely different. The setting, my hairstyle (long hair, bangs), not to mention the age (29 gasp!) have all changed. In the past year I have 1) resigned from a career, 2) moved from Europe back to the U.S., 3) become a full-time student, 4)gone from being single to being in a relationship, and 5) felt serene about all of these changes.  Like a river rock, never surrounded by the same water but still a rock (with bangs) - that is how I feel right now. It's as if I have reached a new plane of emotional wholeness I didn't know I was capable of reaching. Getting. Older. Is. Awesome.


Marcie and I often find ourselves taking moments to appreciate what is going on in our lives. When one of us begins to say, "can I just take a moment..." our partners inevitably roll their eyes at our sentimentality. But talking about stuff we appreciate is a way of life for us, and no degree of mocking will stop us. So now I'd just like to take a moment... to appreciate all of my friends old and new, and wherever you are in the world. May you drink deeply from the Starbucks cup of life and never want for adventure. 
                             
                                  Love,
                                  Melissa
       

How to Remove an Ink Stain

There are always millions of tons of dust in the air, just as there are millions of cubes of air in the earth…And sometimes there is a ballpoint pen in your washing machine, which explodes and does this to your bathrobe:

The culprit

Eight of us went for a very muddy hike at Lake Nockamixon, so afterwards we did a load of laundry. A couple of loads later when I pulled the exploded ballpoint pen out of the machine, I knew immediately it was Ben's. He had already claimed a handful of loose change and a set of keys from a previous wash that day. He must have been distracted when he put his pants in the wash...

Anyway, men are like this right? Always forgetting to empty their pockets.

But why did it have to be the load of whites? Some quick googling turned up an effective solution: rubbing alcohol. When it comes to stain removal always remember the chemists' adage, like dissolves like. Soap and water will work on water based stains. This is also why your nail polish dissolves in nail polish remover (acetone), but not in water.

We did everything we could to save Papa Smurf, but the bleeding was unstoppable.

First I  panicked and started to liberally douse the bathrobe in rubbing alcohol.This produced two results. One, the ink stain immediately dissolved in the rubbing alcohol like magic (yay!). Two, the excess ink began to spread out all over the fabric (crap!). To remedy the situation I had to get organized. I folded paper towels into blotters and laid the fabric down on top - this part was tricky because the robe had two layers, and so I had to tackle each layer separately while being careful not to let stained portions of fabric touch unstained portions of fabric.

Then I used more paper towels to section off the stain from above. Now when I poured alcohol on the robe, the excess ink was trapped on the paper towel blotter.  

 Paper towel blotters and rubbing alcohol.

After the excess ink was blotted away there were still some faint blue marks. Using toothbrushes, hydrogen peroxide, and some soap, Marcie and I got to work removing as much of the remaining ink from the fibers of the fabric. 

Then we used a bleach pen to treat whatever discoloration was left. Finally we sent the robe through the wash cycle on cold, twice. 

Using a bleach pen to get the last of the ink out. Success!

The final result was great. You could barely tell the robes had been stained at all. There were points along the way where we thought we were going to have to buy replacements. Fortunately, instead of shelling out hard-earned cash, we were able to salvage them with chemistry and a little elbow grease!

When he reached for his ticket, his hand grazed mine....

Krisy Plourde, center left, and Tom Golden, center right, kiss after they were married on the “Love Train,” a SEPTA elevated train festively-decorated for Valentine's Day, on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2011 in Philadelphia. The train toured the Mural Arts Program’s “Love Letter” project by artist Stephen Powers. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Daily News, David Maialetti) from Washington Tmes article, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/13/the-science-of-valentines-day/?page=all

 I was flipping through the Metro today and my eyes rested on page four, where an add in the bottom right of the page caught me eye, and got me get all sappy. It asked, “Did you meet your sweetheart on SEPTA”? For the record, no I didn’t. Ben and I actually met while bustin' a move at The 700 Club, BUT I loooooove the idea of SEPTA romances! (For you non-Philly folks, SEPTA stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). Instead of our eyes meeting on the dance floor, I’m starting to wish I could begin our love story with the phrase, “As he reached for his ticket, his hand grazed mine….”

     I hope some of you reading this met your Mister or Miss Right on the rails (or the bus, or the trolley, or the subway)! Please tell me about it and more importantly submit your story to  SEPTA Love Stories! 

                 The fourteen winning couples will get a free ride on a decorated Market Frankford line train, with a great view of the Mural Arts Program’s “Love Letter.” Then you’ll get to go to a champagne reception in downtown Philly. Submissions and votes are open until February 6^th! Good luck you crazy kids!!!!!!!!

              *Marcie