Crafting Christmas

I haven’t written on the blog for quite a while.  The Christmas season is upon us.  I have been a busy little bee, crafting gifts for my family.  I have made my children dream catchers, pencil pouches, book marks ( for real books), paintings and a set of curtains for one of them.  The drawing and painting have taken up a lot  time over the past month.   I will attach pictures when I get a chance.  Until then, wishing everyone  Happy Holidays with family and friends.

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My Backyard

My Backyard.

My Backyard

Can we conserve our habitats?  Can we clean the waters we have poisoned?

This is the little babbling brook in my backyard.

Do you see all of the bubbles?  My questions are what is it, and where does it come from?

Here is an up close picture.

These are stiff bubbles collecting by a rock.

We as the people, with choice and a conscience need to preserve our habitats everywhere.

As to the suds and bubbles, my small part is to use natural detergents.  Borax, washing soda, baking soda and an all natural soap are the ingredients.  Some natural soaps are: good old- fashioned Ivory, Fels-Naptha, or any natural soap.  This recipe is  low suds. I recycled an old large coffee can, 23 ounces, and mixed my ingredients:

4 cups borax, 4 cups washing soda, 1 cup baking soda, and half the bar of soap (shaved).

The bar of soap has to be shaved.  A cheese grater works great, or an utility knife.  This is the only time- consuming  part of the recipe.  Mix all the ingredients together, and use a 2 tablespoons per load of laundry.  This is safe for front-loading washing machines, and the environment.

Borax has many useful purposes.  Sticking with the laundry theme, Borax can be used with bleach.  Borax is also made in the USA.

Here is the website:  http://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/

Animal Paintings

Animal Paintings

This is my website dedicated to endangered animals.  I have been working on these paintings for a while.  I needed a collection in order to exhibit them on my website.  There are five, for now; and I am currently working on a green sea turtle.  Please share this, comments are always welcome or even e-mail.  Thanks for your support. 

http://www.craftynookusa.weebly.com

Renee

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Interpersonal and Communication Skills.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

How important are interpersonal  skills?  Communication skills?  Where do interpersonal skills come from? Communication skills?

The article “The Real Reason New College Grads Can’t Get Hired” from Time magazine incorporates a survey from Workforce Solutions Group at St. Louis Community College.  The survey states “new graduates cannot get a job because interpersonal  and communication skills are lacking.”  We all know the job market is not that great at this moment in time, so the survey needs to be taken into consideration along with the bigger picture.  There are many other reasons why new graduates do not get hired.  For the moment, I want to talk about interpersonal and communication skills from an educational standpoint.

Do you remember kindergarten?  I remember waiting so “impatiently” for my turn in the dress-up room.  I also remember sharing with the other kids, and of course for a kindergartener, that is extremely hard.  Now, I want to propose the random thought of sharing and waiting your turn as  life-long skills that develop into our fancy “interpersonal and communication” skills as adults.

My children never had the chance to play with other kids in kindergarten.  They never had to wait “impatiently” for the dress-up room or the block corner.  They never had the chance to ask a fellow classmate, “Can I please have that toy?”  Instead, my kindergarteners, and your kindergarteners have to hold a pencil in a tiny hand where the muscles aren’t fully developed, and write their numbers and letters.  Scribbling and sharing art-work is out.  Show and tell is out. Writing numbers is the trend.  Writing letters is the trend.

Those interpersonal skills stem from when we first enter school and learn to play with one another.  Those skills of sharing and waiting  for turns are life-long  skills that have been taken away.  Here is a genuine effect: younger generations are lacking interpersonal and communication skills. Later on in life, the child who wrote instead of playing lacks social skills.  Playing is just as important as school work.  Playing and work should be balanced–not tipped to favor one.  Playing is a social skill that has been deprived from younger generations and will permeate through the ages to come.

Now that thought has been given to interpersonal skills beginning in kindergarten, there are also many other factors that lead to interpersonal and communication skills lacking in younger generations.  Television and video games are favorite past-times.  Both of these actions are passive and anti-social.  Environment can also effect social skills.  Acknowledgement is made that there are many numerous factors contributing to interpersonal and communication skills lacking.

Word of the Day: Revival

Word of the Day: Revival.

Word of the Day: Revival

Open the dictionary to a random page, point to a random word: Revival

Revival of the  Spirit

In the fast pace times of the technological age, revival of the spirit has to occur.  The spirit connection to the earth is being obliterated.  The spirit connection to family and folk dwindles with each day.  The spirit connection to honor and morality, seems to have died a long time ago.

Reviving the spirit would connect humans to one another.  Although we are each unique, different from one another; we are all humans.  We all long to be understood, heard and loved.  Reviving the  spirit to understand one another and see anothers’ perspective is imperative to make great changes for the future generations.  The spirit of humans can be revived to live and re-connect with our planet.

Our spirits walk over this planet leaving waste and debris in our tracks.  Reviving our connection to our humans’ home: the planet Earth needs to happen.  The reviving of our spirits could bring about respect, obligation, and cleansing to the Earth we have so long pillaged.  Reviving our spirit connection to our home could bring about clean water, and air.  If we revive the connection, the Earth could heal, and maybe, just maybe, zoos will not be collections of animals we destroyed.  Reviving the spirit is imperative before it is too late.

Reviving the spirit connection to other humans and our home will in turn fix the brokenness of human morals and honor.  If we respect one another, if we respect our planet, our morals will align themselves as just and correct.

Reviving the spirit means to be awake and see what is going on.  Awakening the spiritual roots to one another and our planet will bring us closer to the revival we are all looking for.

My Backyard

Butterflies

 

Surprisingly, butterflies are extremely fast.  Every time this butterfly flew, I had to walk fast, quietly, just to keep up.

 

Patience does pay off.  I stood behind this blue beauty for quite a while.  The next picture is great!

 

He sat in the sun and fanned his wings.  Open, Close.  Unfortunately, this is a little blurry. 

Enjoy nature and all of its beauties!

Fire-eater: The Word of the Day

Fire-Eater

The boy and his father stepped out of the hut onto the white sand.  The horizon was vast, spreading out into both directions.  As the sun set, pinks lit up the sky, casting tinted shadows on the sand.  Soon the night lights will turn on, and the evening will begin.

“Dad, are we going to see the fire-eater tonight?”

“I forgot to look at the schedule, but I think so,” he said.  The tall man looked down at his son and smiled.

Blackness dominated the sky as the grass huts twinkled with strings of light.  In the middle of the beach, logs were being cast into a huge fire pit.  People mingled with one another with tall cocktail glasses in their hands, where the boy stood by his father, but his back was turned away from him.  He stood silently watching the fire-pit grow and grow.  He watched the lean natives, throwing log after log into the pit.  He wondered: who is the fire-eater?  Shifting from one foot to the other, he could not tell.  He saw a table set up near the fire pit with long, skinny poles.  His blood ran with excitement: this was the night.

The fire pit lit up the sky, with a slow cadence of waves tumbling on the shore.  The drummers set up in a semi-circle behind the fire with dancers lining up to the sides of the sand stage.  The beat began.  A hypnotizing beat set the dancers in motion, slow then fast.  The boy stood and watched, waiting for the fire-eater.

After the fire died down, the drums slowed their beat.  Stopped.  Silence seemed to last forever to the boy.  A shadow moved at the side, but the boy did not see who it was.  His feet began to shift again, back and forth with his small frame.  While he was looking to the side, the drums simultaneously beat, and a man appeared.  The boy’s face lit up.  In the man’s hands were two sticks of equal proportion.  He wore no shirt.  The fire-eater stepped back to the fire-pit, and caught his sticks on fire.  The drummers picked a fast beat, and the fire-eater moved.  The stick’s fire twirled and twirled leaving trails of light in the black sky.  The fire circled in the air and was caught by the fire-eater.  The boy stood still for the first time that night, in awe.

The trail of fire in the sky was a sight to see. And the man, moved so fast with the beat of the drums.  Legs up; arms down. Arms up; legs down. What a fantastic sight to see.  Then, the fire-eater stood still, and opened his mouth.  The flame went inside his mouth, and flames escaped out the side.  The boy’s mouth was open, as his father nudged him with his elbow.   The flame seemed to be inside his mouth for an eternity.    When the flame left his mouth, the clapping and cheering echoed across the vast horizon.  And the boy, jumped with joy to finally see the fire-eater.

Photograph:  Antony Stanley

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