November 06, 2012

For you: printable 2012 electoral college map!

November 06, 2012/ molly balint

I was searching the internet this afternoon for a map of the electoral college that I could print out. I wanted a map of the United States with each state's electoral votes, so the kids could color it in as results start streaming in.

I found one that worked but it was no longer available, even a cached copy, and its numbers were out of date for 2012. So I played with it in photoshop and made the changes for 2012.

I thought I'd share it with all of you in case your kids want to follow along as well. Looking forward to an exciting night! And I take it back, I guess I'll talk about politics more than once.

In case you're interested, here are the states whose electoral college votes changed in 2012:

WA +1 | NV +1 | AZ +1 | UT +1 | IA -1 | TX +4 | LA -1 | MO -1 | IL -1

MI -1 | OH -2 | GA +1 | SC +1 | FL +2 | PA -1 | NY -2 | MA -1 | NJ -1

October 24, 2012

Five Green Acres :: This Is Wool

October 24, 2012/ molly balint

MaryJo has been a familiar blog friend and faithful reader for many years. So when she emailed me a few weeks ago about a new adventure she has begun I was so excited for the opportunity to share it with all of you. Not only because she is living out one of my own "some day" dreams, but also because she is doing it with such intention, care and respect for her animals and the process.

With a flock of five sheep, MaryJo has gone from pasture to skein to create a First Harvest of wool that is handspun and hand-dyed. Her hands have touched every step of the process, as you'll see in her beautiful and inspiring video below. And just this month she has set up shop online.

I asked Mary Jo to share a bit about herself....

I’m Mary Jo – the Momma, Wife, Farmer, Artisan of these Acres. I make things. I pursue beauty. I am utterly fascinated by process and gain immense satisfaction from living each step of this yarn, from pasture to skein. This wool is from my small flock of sheep - only five contributed to this harvest. The plants that lent their pigments to the wool were grown by me or collected within my community. This yarn sings with life that I've given it with my own two hands.

And as someone who is entering the whole new world of breeding sheep, I asked her to share how she learned about the process...

I steeped myself in books(stacks and stacks), classes, and local connections to other sheep people. Even after this First Harvest shearing, I took my time deciding what to do with it and how. There's no rush - wool keeps indefinitely if stored properly. It's all been quite experimental, and will continue to be. Attending classes at my area's annual fiber festival was the best way for me to learn how to spin and card. There are also many local guilds for spinning and knitting. Ravelry has several boards on keeping sheep as well as in processing the fleece, but many folks utilize small mills to do a lot of the processing, which is also a great option. It's a steep learning curve, but I was comforted at the very start by the notion one farmer gave me that sheep are so easy that they're what many farmers switch to when they retire.

I also asked her to share her vision for the future of This Is Wool....

I'm currently working on some pattern designs to complement the beautiful variations in this First Harvest wool and hope to release them in the next month or so. We also just finished shearing the Second Harvest of wool, which I'll be washing and drying outside before the temps dip too low. Because of the drought this year, all of the dyeing will be done with acid dyes. Second Harvest will have a look all its own because of this, but I'm satisfied with the decision to keep the sparse dye plants for the critters that will need them over the winter. And, as much as I love the spinning process, (I really, really do) First Harvest will be the only one to offer handspun skeins, making this vintage of yarn extra special.

Take a look at this beautiful video that walks you through Mary's process from pasture to skein. I promise, you're going to want a flock of sheep of your own after watching this...

This is wool. First Harvest: Backyard from Mary Jo, FiveGreenAcres on Vimeo.

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MaryJo's First Harvest is 2.5 oz/100 yard skeins of 2-ply, handspun, plant-dyed wool in worsted weight. You can find it in a whole range of beautiful colors on her website Five Green Acres.

October 23, 2012

I declare

October 23, 2012/ molly balint

I've declared this week to be the week of good things. Things that are uplifting and happy. Behind the scenes, we're hanging in there. The outpouring of encouragement from all of you has been amazing. Even yesterday, when I posted this little shot on Instagram of all of us, while hanging out in the ER waiting for our next dose of the vaccine, it was flooded with good thoughts and wishes, and "I wish I could come out there and buy you all a milkshake!" But the good news in all this is one more round to go! And to quote Elizabeth, "Then I can finally get back to a normal life!"

In the meantime, a few good things around the webby-web-web:

Probably the only time in my life that my name will appear in the same article with Brooke Shields, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tom Cruise and Alanis Morrissette....and proof that among mothers, some things know no bounds of language, race, location or income. We all need to ask for help when we need it.

Something about this post hit me in a good spot this week.

This place is always light, fresh, inspiring (and good for my french).

I'm pretty sure warm bread makes everything better, right? This week, probably this one.

I think my girls have earned some of these to stitch on their sleeves.

And tomorrow, another good thing to share with you that gets me all itchy to have the girls back home...

xo, friends. and thank you.

molly

August 24, 2012

Bring on the roast and potatoes

August 24, 2012/ molly balint

I know, I know, I've been gone for days! But this is too good not to share on a Friday afternoon.

Happy 100th to Julia. And bon appetit, my friends.

August 13, 2012

Goodbye Olympics, hello end of summer

August 13, 2012/ molly balint

Olympics are over and I have to admit that we weren't into it as much this year as I thought we would be. We took in our fair share of swimming, gymnastics and soccer. And streamed a lot of equestrian events online, but overall we weren't glued to the games. No Olympics withdrawl.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that it is mid-August. We're in the thick of back-to-school prep. Buying books, cleaning out and rearranging the school room. We'll start the first week of September, though with a cubby full of fresh school supplies the girls are begging to start. That's just the way I like 'em--champing at the bit for the beginning of school.

Fall always has the same fresh feel that January 1 does. Getting organized, falling back into routines, an excuse to buy a new planner. I love it. And of course, through the overwhelming power of Pinterest, I've been pinning tons of organizational ideas I'll never have time to accomplish because I'm so busy pinning them.

But here are four fave pins of the week that have uber-organized written all over them.

I think I'm actually going to do this calendar for our school room. I love having a big calendar to display, and this is way more attractive than the oversized desk calendar I've used in the past. I'm all over this idea from maple & magnolia.

This gets to my inner-geek in only a way Martha Stewart can. The drawers are painted to show what goes where. Not only do I love the organization of this. I love that it helps kids get involved. But, I'm also completely in love with the idea of putting things like plates, cups, bowls in a drawer, where kids can reach them easily. Setting the dinner table is a great kid-chore and this makes it so do-able for them.

I could get lost on this site for awhile, searching through every kind of printable paper you can imagine. A score sheet for cricket? Yahtzee? Softball? You'll find it here. And of course other kid-friendly things like lined paper, graph paper, manuscript paper, lesson plan sheets...all free, my friends.

With four girls, tons of hand-me-downs and dresser drawers overflowing with clothes, I LOVE this concept of buying a few pieces that can be mixed and matched into tons of outfits. (more combinations are on her site) It reminds me of when I was younger and one of my mother's friends came over to help me organize my closet and put together outfits. She was great at taking a few pieces and wearing them lots of different ways. And she wrote down outfits on little notecards so I could choose a different one for each day. What I would give to have a personal sylist like that now. My middle school self had no idea how good I had it. Ha!