Hippie Gathering ~ A celebration of Boho

The most fun I have ever had in self-discovery has occurred over this last week. After decades of denying what I truly love and desire from life, I have come to the conclusion that my life will be happier if I adopted some semblance of a bohemian lifestyle. My newfound hippie-ness has led me to some pretty awesome clothing designers on Etsy and some really cool chicks on Twitter. (Get it? Chicks ~ Twitter...haha, snort, snort.) I drove a Mini Cooper last week and now I'm positive this is my new and future vehicle. At 40 - 60 MPG it also falls in with my "save-the-air-so-I-can-breathe-it" motto. The independent take-me-as-I-am attitude I have always had has never changed.

The long and the short of it is that there are some really great people out there. I'd like to celebrate some of this bohemian lifestyle and the super-awesome people that maintain their hippie-ness. To do that I need some pictures. If you read this blog and would like us to see you in all your braided long hair, bell-bottom, wide-legged, tunic-wearing glory. If you move toward hemp jewelry and feathers in  your hair, send me a picture. You can upload it to this Flikr group and I'll post them on the internet in this widely-read blog.

Rules:
We try to hide from them but there are some that are just undeniably appropriate to follow, such as the following:
1. NO nudity! If you send me a naked photo, it will be deleted and you will be removed from the Flikr group, blocked, and whatever other actions I can take to prevent you from doing that again.
2. NO spam or advertising! I support handmade and if you'd like to see a write-up of your stuff, I'd be more'n happy to do it. But this is not the post where that goes, thank you very much. Pictures unrelated to this topic will be removed or moved to more appropriate sections.
3. Abide by those two rules and we'll all be happy.

Thanks, and God Bless.

The day I realized I was a hippie

Hi everyone. It has been so long since I posted anything - much too long. I have been so busy with school (finishing it up -12 weeks to go!), family, church, crafting, and just life in general that I haven't had time to sit and write. I won't promise that this is the first of many more to come, as there are a lot of variables right now. However, I would like to think that I'll be a little more consistent.

That said - how about some info on what life has thrown at me? I discovered the other day that I am truly a hippie at heart. Born at the end of the 70s, I never really experienced life during that great awakening of America's youth. I had to grow up through the 80s and 90s, a generation X'er with big hair and weird clothes. Somehow, though, I think I was born a decade and a half too late. I have always denied my flower child tendencies, but they came flying in my face last week and now I laugh at all of the things that pointed toward this fateful revelation.

It all began when I found an article by Nicky Epstein entitled "Learning the Ropes" in the most recent (December 2010) issue of Vogue Knitting Magazine. This article was so intriguing in the use of knitted i-cord to create Celtic style knots for necklaces. Needless to say this technique ho was hooked! I sat down that day and knitted an 81" i-cord from cotton yarn and created a pretty cool necklace. I had to know more, so I began looking up knot techniques and before I knew it was on YouTube watching the amazing J.D. Lenzen of Tying It All Together make beauty from a piece of rope. On to the shopping part.

I then bought some waxed polyester cord from Etsy and thought I could make some pretty great jewelry out of it. Well, it was a little small for just tying knots, so I had to look up other uses for it. That led me to macrame techniques. I've been creating jewelry and practicing different knots for the last 2-3 weeks now, with some pretty favorable results!

So what led me to the hippie conclusion? This resulted as a trip to the store to purchase some jute cord (hemp, if you will) and  a lighter for the waxed cord to melt the tips. I thought it was somewhat funny that I was purchasing jute and lighter together, given my straight-laced Christian background. I prayed nobody from our overly large (like 70% of the town!) church would recognize me in there. When I came home that night I watched "When in Rome" and absolutely fell in love with the little yellow Fiat on there. We're in the market for a new car and my sights are set on a Jeep or a Mini  Cooper. Both very much in the hippie scheme of things. I LOVE macrame. The relaxation of taking things and putting knots in them is awesome. I say "man," "cool," "dude" and other such phrases. I like tie-die. I also adore nature and insist that even as a Christian, it is my sworn duty (stewardship) to protect what God has given us. One thing I am missing is that I really like to take showers.

So while I will remain drug-free (I like my mind being my own) and continue to shower, I am also going to embrace my hippy-ness. I think hippy-ness is just another word for happiness, as it feels so free to just enjoy life...and Fiats...and minis...and jute...and wood beads...and saying "cool  man"...and...