The best present

The only thing on my wish list this holiday was a goat. My best friend donated one in my name from Plan Canada.

I watched a documentary in October called Where's My Goat? and it moved me deeply.

It features Christopher Richardson, who buys goats for third world families as thank-you gifts for clients. Some clients questioned the existence of their goat so Christopher decided to track down a client’s goat and discover for himself if ethical gifts are the positive, developing world, life-changers they are advertised to be.

I had no idea how a gift of a goat had such a profound impact on an impoverished family. I encourage everyone to watch the full documentary, if you get the opportunity. And...donate a goat.

Santa conquers the Martians

The worst Noel

Henri must be tutoring my herd.

The 12 Awkward Days of Xmas

Henson Alternative's Miskreant Puppets give a saucy take on the 12 Days of Christmas.

The return of pantyhose

According to The Beheld, pantyhose is back.

I say 'YAY' but shoe companies will probably balk at its return. Hasn't anyone noticed, sans hosiery, that the insides of their shoes are chewed to bits after a very short time ?

Yuletube

Yuletube from Nation on Vimeo.

Here's a video featuring a downloadable add-on that will clean up nasty YouTube comments.

Here's a better suggestion; instead of downloading software to alter your browser, simply stop reading comments. Works for me.

Victorian lace eggs

These are beautiful. I came across this video while visiting this Wave Avenue blog entry.

The artist is Beth Ann Magnuson of The Feathered Nest at Windy Corner Farm.

Separating the signal from the noise

Have you ever visited Brain Pickings? If not, get ready for a real treat.

It reeled me in with the pull-quote on the 'About' page, " Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are."

Make it so!

The Canuck 12 days of Christmas

Happy Holidays

DIY Snowman ornament

Here's a cute way to recycle old, used light bulbs.

Materials & tools needed:
- used light bulb
- plaster
- white craft paint
- red craft paint
- wire, cord or ribbon
- orange polymer clay
- hot glue gun
- black marker
- dark pink marker
- strip of fabric

Mix up some plaster and cover the glass of the light bulb. Dab it so you have some soft, plaster peaks on it.

Use a glue gun to place your wire, cord or ribbon at the top part of the screw top and then plaster over it to embed it. Set aside to dry.

Once the plaster is dry, paint the plastered areas white. Set aside to dry.

Once the white is dry, paint the screw part of the light bulb red. Set aside to dry.

Take the orange polymer clay and make a thin, cone with a flat bottom. Use the directions on the clay package to harden the orange clay cone. This will be used as the 'carrot' nose for your snowman.

Use the glue gun to glue the orange nose on to the plastered & painted light bulb.

Use your black marker to draw little dots on the plaster to make eyes and buttons.

Use your dark pink marker to lightly draw rosy cheeks.

Tie a strip of material around the snowman's 'neck'

Tie the wire, cord or ribbon at the top of your ornament on to the tree.

Ugly Christmas Sweater DIY

Technology invades craftdom.

Holiday countdown

Free ecard personalized with Smilebox

Can musicians pave a road to world peace?

Santur: Persian hammer dulcimer

Can musicians pave a road to world peace? This question was posed as promotion of the Silk Road Project television program Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, which I had the pleasure of viewing last evening on HIFI music & art, a Canadian HDTV channel.

The show was not so much a performance as a thorough exploration of ancient instruments, culture, technical execution, composition, individual learning curves, and dynamics of musical collaboration.

I was transfixed by the concentration, raw mastery, and technical problem solving culminating in an effective, polygamous marriage of musical thought. The joy of discovery marked each musician's foray into uncharted musical territory. Their mental and physical flexibility spawned pure beauty.

If every facet of mankind embraced unfamiliarity with such non-judgement, commitment and mindfulness, life would be luxe.