Project Genesis...

This Project Genesis is a proud one for me...

Meet John...

He is a 2011 graduate of the University of Michigan.

His degree?

Environmental Science with a major in Food Systems.

What does that mean for our world?

It means we have someone who has put his heart and soul into finding a way to make sure our food is healthy.

His dream job will be to find ways to convince cities and the people who live in them to eat food 

that is grown locally and is a sustainable product.

 Could I be more proud of him?

 NO!

He is in this sea of humanity... waiting his turn to stand with his class to be told you are now a graduate of 

U of M...

He will be doing his internship in northern MI. and will be doing research at a Biocenter up there.

Before he moves to WA. to begin his next chapter.

Food is an important topic for John... he loves to eat.

But healthy food is a main ingredient in his diet.

He is a vegan.

He is serious about everyone eating food from their local farmers.

Organic food is a high priority for him.

He doesn't expect everyone to embrace the vegan life.

He just wants all of us to know exactly WHAT is in our food.

Do you read the labels?

Do you try to buy your groceries so that most of your food comes without a label?

These are questions he has asked me.

That is what he will be working toward for you and your family.

He wants to extend our lives by teaching us to care about what we put in our bellies.

He wants to preserve the small farming communities by having us buy our food right from them, not a middle man, not a huge company that dictates to the farmer how to grow our food so that it lasts longer on the shelf.

If your fruit rots after a week, although that would be a bit disappointing to have to throw it out,

it is supposed to rot.

Strawberries are red.

Bananas are yellow.

Tomatoes are red.

Wouldn't it be nice to find them that way at your local grocery store?

Wouldn't it be wonderful to know that you and your community provided a way to keep a local farmer in his home, farming his own land just for you?

John said even if you want to eat meat mom, you should know where it was grown.

It doesn't have to be shipped across the country when we have farms right here in our area that can provide the meat for you.  Farms that will open the barn door and let you see your "future dinner" and know that the conditions that it lived in were good.

That it lived a healthy life, NOT a drug induced life, 

so that YOU can live a healthy life, NOT a drug induced life.

Can you imagine the pride a farmer would feel knowing that his family was able to provide the community where they live, wholesome produce?

Our farmers are no longer able to sustain themselves by growing a combination of crops.

They are providing large companies enough corn to make sure that it goes in everything we eat.

It must stop.

 You can see, I have a good teacher.

 Our diet is still not where he would like it to be but we are getting there.

One step at a time and I do pay attention.

Old habits die hard, but they will die.

Just today he was telling Hannah why buying a bottle of water was a waste of money.

He doesn't just stop at telling her that it's because it's really only tap water in a plastic bottle,

 he gives a lesson on how much energy goes into making that bottle and how much energy and pollution is created to bring that bottle to the store.  Only to end up in a landfill.

It is these conversations that he has had with us, that has convinced Hannah and I to become vegetarians.

We are still going strong, and loving it.

so I will take the lessons that he teaches me and do my part to feed this family well,

to stay informed and to know where our food comes from.

I will buy locally whenever I can.

So hurry up summer...

I need our farmers market to open!!!

He is as persuasive as he is handsome,

I wish I could put you all in a room with him for one of the best food lessons you will ever hear.

(since I can't I will do my best to pass along the lessons that he teaches me.)

CONGRATULATIONS JOHN!  

I love you so much. xoxoxoxoxoxxoox

I am linking up late, because I just came home from taking him back to his house in Ann Arbor.

but I didn't want to miss out on the chance to link up to Project Genesis over at Old Grey Mare

Thank you Z for this very important and inspiring party!

Thank you for reading my Proud Mom post!

Theresa xoxo

blame it on the glue...

I was in the mood for a little assemblage work.  I find it very freeing, Hannah says I channeled my inner Sid! (the kid from Toy Story who dismantelled and destroyed toys)  I think I kinda freaked her out a little :)  but I am of the thought that it's good to keep your kids wondering...

I had a broken frozen charlotte body and so I put a birds head on it (cmon you know you would do the same thing!)  dolled him up with an old monopoly hat and little scrap of wool scarf and bingo button.  But I didn't stop there people...

He is sitting in a rhinestone bedazzled vintage finial nest full of glittered music paper.  This was easy peasy, I ran the paper through the shredder and then I poured some modpodge into my hand (think hand cream)  and then crumpled it all up and placed the ball, now formed into a nest, on a piece of paper and sprinkled it with silver glass glitter.
but it didn't stop there...

The nest is "perched" (sorry couldn't resist)  on a piece of a chippy rusty light fixture with the name Junk Bird stamped on some seam binding and glued to old ledger paper.

Add an old store price tag and waalaah!  So you see why Hannah was a little concerned ;)

O.k. truth be told, this one wasn't the one that  frightened her...

This one was!  I ask you... what's a girl to do (after using strong whiffy glue all day)  with a lone broken doll head?  How many times have you wished that you could fly like a bird?

Once I started playing with the rusty crusty goodness that has taken over the my workspace, well I just couldn't stop myself...  (really, we had pancakes for dinner)

besides her fabulous salt shaker hat she is bejeweled from front to back!

So there you have it... glue fumes, rusty treasures piling up, broken dolls and birds just laying around. do you agree with Hannah or are you flying over to the creative paradise with me?  ;O

Hope to see you soon!  Today I will be cleaning up my mess, stocking up for the big storm and maybe I'll treat them to soup instead of pancakes!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and link up to Suzan's Project Genesis.  One of my main contributions to our planet is saving things from our landfills.  What better way than to turn it into art!  It is a wonderful project that Suzan has created... one drop of water in the well at a time will fill the well.

I am also linking up to Tutorial Tuesday, White Wednesday and Link Love

On a side note... on Sunday when I visited Hope Studios for her Sunday Funny, I may have taken the video too seriously!  If you didn't see it, you really should, it is a great laugh!!!


Thanks  for stopping by!  Theresa xoxo

Project Genesis

Happy Monday! I am joining in Suzan's Project Genesis movement today, she posted an awesome tutorial on how to make a reusable shopping bag for us to take to the grocery store so that we can eliminate the age old question... paper or plastic. It's worth checking out (hers is actually almost too pretty for the grocery store) and making some for the next trip to the grocery store! I missed PG last month and had thought about what I would post about and as it turns out it was shopping. As you can see from the picture above, I am from a very large family. Those beautiful parents right up front are the reason why family is so important to me. They decided when they got married to have 12 children. It's true... 12! Who does that? Well, people who love family and what it represents that's who! Now because that was the choice made, there were other choices made as well and being frugal was one of those choices. My parents instilled in me that life is about the people, love and laughter that you surround yourself with, not the stuff. Not that I don't like stuff... cuz I love me some stuff... but it is not my reason to live, I don't cringe if a plate or glass gets broken, and you know why? Because I probably paid almost nothing for it, that's why! I cringe at the cost of some of lifes necessities as it is, so if I am going to get us some of lifes extras well, I'm shopping second hand. I have found here in blogland that so many of you do exactly the same thing. We don't need a mall to define our style, we can create our own by mixing clothes from different eras that we find at the thrift store or a wonderful yard sale. My mom loved garage sales, she would find the craziest stuff - always with a plan, not that she always carried out that plan mind you, but she started out with a plan! She passed on the idea that things can be reused, recycled and passed down. With 12 kids in the family you did not want to be the last boy or girl in the family cuz you know that there is "still some life left in those jeans!" Patches were my moms best friend!
So now I have passed this love of thrift stores on to my children. My older kids shop almost exclusively at thrift stores for their clothes and housewares. I am proud of them for this choice, for one, is there a better way to recycle? They have shopped there on their own since highschool because they did not want to look like they just came from the mall and looked like everyone else at school. They still do that today and the best part, besides the fact that they always look so fabulous when they go out, they are recycling, reusing and passing down everything they buy! By purchasing vintage, and we all know how much we like our vintage, we are all doing our part to keep perfectly good items out of our landfills and giving a gorgeous piece of history another chance at life.
So to wrap this up... keep on sharing all of your vintage treasures here on blogland and you will be passing on the lessons taught to us by our parents... waste not want not! These are important lessons to share with our young children who are so brainwashed by commercials of buy, buy, buy! I am proud to be a frugal shopper and that my dad and mom thought it was more important to fill a home with 12 children that they raised with love and values than it was fill it with valuables. My mom is gone now, and I miss her terribly, but the wisdom she and my dad shared with us about what is really important in life will be with me forever and I hope that I can continue to pass it on to my children, and now with you!
Head on over to Old Grey Mare and visit with the other participants for Project Genesis, if every one of us shared one idea no matter how small, and we tried the ideas shared, just imagine how much better this little planet we call home would be!

Thanks for letting me ramble on...Theresa xoxo