Prayer Flag Project 2014

Good Good Good Vibrations!

We all share the "positive" messages we see and like on facebook.  All the life building, feel good, up and at 'em inspirational messages other people like.  Take a few minutes, get your favorite down on a simple piece of cotton cloth and send it to me!

I would like to hang a few strings of hand made "prayer flags" over my backyard to celebrate the beginning of summer on June 21st.   I would like to have people submit their own prayer flags to me to add your energy and good will to the mix as well as spread your good vibes to the winds. You will find instructions below on how to submit your “prayer flags”. I will include them in the mix of flags to hang over the yard.

What are prayer flags?

A simple piece of cotton cloth. Tibetan Prayer Flags are inscribed with auspicious symbols, invocations, prayers, and mantras. Tibetan Buddhists for centuries have planted these flags outside their homes and places of spiritual practice for the wind to carry the beneficent vibrations across the countryside. 

Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion of the meanings of the flags into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all. By hanging flags in high places the Lung ta (Wind Horse) will carry the blessings depicted on the flags to all beings. As wind passes over the surface of the flags which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the intentions of the flags..
The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the world as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life's changes, acknowledges the impermanence of all things and an understanding that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle.

Why would I want to participate?

Why wouldn't you? The project is a great family project, involve the kids, your friends. It is relatively inexpensive. It will make you sit and think good thoughts for an hour or so as you create your flag(s). Make you realize the things your grateful for. It is creative! When was the last time you sat down and “colored”.

How can I participate?

By creating and sending me you very own prayer flags. Make as many as you want, there are a few simple guidelines to follow on the next page. But, whatever, you get it to me and its doable I will fly your prayer flag!!

When I need your flags!

I would like to hang the prayer flags to celebrate the start of summer. So have your flags to me by the 18^th of June and I will include them in the hanging. I do not need to know who you are, you may include your return address if you wish. I will photograph each one and if you let me will attach your name to the photo as well.I will create a Flickr online album so everyone can view our flags. 
Instructions

Material:

If possible please use 100% cotton as they last the longest and hold the inks/paints etc. the best. They also move the most in the wind. Again, go crazy, avoid t-shirt material as it will curl very quickly and not get blown about much.

Colors: (suggestion only)

The traditional colors are blue, white, yellow, red and green. So use cloth in these colors or colored inks/paints etc. That being said, go crazy.

Media Suggestions:

Colored sharpies, fabric paints, india ink, the best bet is use black sharpie designed for laundry marking. Again be creative! You send it..I'll fly it.

Suggested Shapes:

• 8" x 9": Small image, kid sized canvas
• 4" x 9": Suitable for your favorite quote or affirmation
• 4" x 12": Slightly longer quote or larger pic
• Pennant 8.5" x 11":  typical pennant shape
• 18 x 22: large canvas suitable for a group effort (every one adds their positive thoughts to the flag)

Pennants:

Pennant: triangle 8.5 x 11 (draw lines on a piece of copier paper from two corners down to a point in the middle of the opposite end)

What should I put on it?

Again, the guideline is anything positive. Your favorite quote, favorite prayer, favorite saying, the things you like people to say to you. Pictures or symbols that mean a lot to you. A list of things your grateful for.  A list of people your grateful for.  Just draw a smiley face. Remember, every flag that is hung includes "you" as well.  So the simple feeling of being happy as expressed by the smiley face will be for all people, everywhere!  want inspiration do a google image search on prayer flags!

I am done, what do I do now?

Be sure its dry. Fold it gently, put it in an envelope (of whatever size you need) and send it to me at

Flag Project!

1427 N New Street

Bethlehem, PA 18018

Anonymity: No need to tell me who you are if you don't want. If you do want me to know then just sign your flag in sharpie!, when I photo it I'll include your name. I will create a Flickr gallery to hold the images.

  

I love granola.  Unfortunately most granola are too high in fat, carbs and other things we too easily load up on.  I have experimented with a few home made granolas.  I consider this a project in the works but here is my latest.  They are tasty and are really not that bad as a snack...you could certainly do worse..

Great Granola Bars

Each bar is 140 Calories, has 4g Fat, 22 G carbohydrate, 4g fiber and 4g protein.

4 C. Old Fashioned Oats
¾ C dry roasted sunflower kernels
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp sweetened coconut
2 Tbsp whole flax seed
1 Tbsp ground flax seed
1 5 oz. Package craisins (any flavor I used cherry)
1 Tsp. Cinnamon (or other spice)


1/3 C Black Lentils (Indian grocery)
1 1/2 C Water divided
1/3 C agave syrup



Mix oats, sunflowers kernels, brown sugar, coconut, flax seeds, ground flax seeds, cinnamon and craisins in a large bowl. Mix with hands to be sure ingredients are well mixed and distributed.


Cook 1/3 C black lentils in 1 cup water (put both in small pan bring to boil reduce heat and cover until water is absorbed about 40 – 50 minutes. While still hot pour into food processor (or blender). Add additional ½ cup water and agave syrup, blend or process until smooth. (gross looking grey paste I know, but its a really good for you paste).


Add the sweetened bean paste to the other ingredients. Mix well until all in=gredients are combined and “moist”. Turn out into oiled jelly roll pan or cookie sheet (with sides). Oil hands a bit and press the micture completely into the pan evenly.


Bake in a preheated 275 °F until golden brown (maybe 1.5 hours) the longer you bake them the crunchier they will get.




Remove from oven and using a pizza cutter or sharp knife cut into 18 pieces (on the length cut in half then each half in thirds, on the width cut into three should yield 18 6 x 1.5 inch bars. Allow to cool completely when cooled about ten minutes remove to wire rack to kep crunchy or leave in pan for chewy granola bars.

Amish Friendship Bread, Part II

I like the coffee cake but its really not what I am looking for though a good alternative to make if following the standard directions.  I guess my real issue is that you make a largish quantity of the fermented gak but only put 1 cup in the cake.  I have been baking breads for quit a few years now and know how much flavor is in that fermented goodness.

The direction for the cake are feed it when you receive it 1 Cup each Milk, Sugar and flour.  Stir briskly and then stir every day.  You then feed the mixture again on day five and day 10.  Using the resultant mixture to bake the cake(s) and have enough left over to give to friends.

MY next "experiment will be to use all the resultant sour to bake either a cake or sweetbreads.

there is always enough mixture stuck to the sides to perpetuate the mixture for another round of feeding/baking.  Not sure on a recipe yet but that is the direction I am headed

Bubbly Goodness

"Amish" Honey Cake

Amish Friendship Bread.  The very phrase strikes fear into most bakers.  One of your friends is trying to foist off a cup of gooey sludge saying it makes a great cake.  All you have to do is feed it twice.  Stir it once a day and then bake your little heart out.  Oh, and by the way you'll have enough gak left over to "share" it with your friends.  By share, I mean hard sell like a televangelist with expensive taste in recreation drugs.

Now it is fairley easy, low maintenance and if you dont follow the rules it hardly makes a difference in the final product.  Your friend will usually give you instructions and some recipes to bake.  The cake is not bad, they freeze well and have stead many a bake sale with endless product.

The starter is milk, flour and sugar in a 1:1:1 ratio.  The starter you receive has been passed from friend to friend as is a living yeast culture.  It rises and falls and get a little beery but over all is not too bad.  The cakes are like pound cakes (or should i say 10 lb cakes) in that they are bundtish, heavyish but tasty.

My long interest in these type of cultural phenomena has led to make these on occasion over the years but I have always been dissatisfied with the results.  I mean you only use a cup of the starter but the cake is risen using baking powder.  I wanted to develop a cake that took advantage of the natural yeasts to add some lightness to the cake.  So here then is my "experiment"

Amish Honey Cake

2 1/2 C Flour
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
2 Eggs
1 C Starter (amish friendship bread)
1 C Milk
1 stick (1/4 lb) of butter room temp
1 8oz. Pkg cream cheese room temp.
1 C Sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C Brown Sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter (melted)
1/2 C chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
2 Tbsp Honey

CAKE:

DRY:
In a bowl mix the 2 1/2 Cups Flour and Tbsp of baking powder, set aside.

WET:
Cream butter and cream cheese well.  Cream in sugar.  Add eggs one at a time mixing well between eggs.  Add cup of starter, milk and vanilla.  Mix until sugar is dissolved.  Add dry ingredients to the wet and blend well (about a minute).  Pour into a greased/floured 13 x 9 x 2 pan.  Set aside.

TOPPING:

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, 2 Tbsp flour and chopped nuts in a small bowl.  MIxuntil ingredients are combined.  Stir in 2 Tbsp of melted buter with fork.  Make sure butter is worked in well and mixture resembles crumbs.  Spread the topping over the top of the cake.  Measuring out 1 tbsp of honey at a time drizzle the honey all over the topping.

Allow the cake to rise about 2 -3 hours.  This will give the yeast some time to ass some lightness ot the cake.  Bake in a 350° F oven for 40- 50 minutes until cake tests done.  Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Overall the taste is as I expected, it is definitely lighter.  not sure if its due to the action of the yeast or just the baking powder being left alone to do its thing.  I allowed the case to rise for 2 and 1/2 hours.  the finished product is nice and tall.   Moist as I expected.  The topping kind of melted into the cake ans in some cases sank down in it which is good but I had hoped it would cover the top better.

Library Pocket Books

One a year Heirloom Productions brings their rubber stamp/paper arts show to Allentown.  Last year was the first year I went.  I returned this year.  My favorite vendor is The Paper Cut (and their sub-company Paper Creations).  They produce card die cuts, have tons of brightly colored papers, and sell book kits.  Accordion book, concertina book, flip books and my favorite the Library Pocket Book.

The first year I bought two of the pocket books, two concertina books and a flip book.  This year it was a mini memory book, and two more library pocket books.  These Library pocket books are awesome.  So here is the beginning of my project:

My Materials List So far:
COVERS:
Ranger Distress Inks in walnut stain and forest moss
Tsukineko Tuxedo black and Encore Ultimate metallic Gold
Spellbinders Donna Salazar - Sprightly Sprockets
Paper Creations Library Pocket Book Kit in Harvest Variety
Close To My Heart Stamps - Key Moments set.
Avery Dennison Reinforced Hole Shipping Tags #5 tags (4 3/4" x 2 3/8" )

Library Book Covers

Covers, a photo by jdkcubed on Flickr.

Took me about 1.5 hours to do the covers.

Lapbooking for fun and knowledge

One of the 1000 hobbies I like to indulge in is scrapbooking.  It started when my niece was born as a way to preserve history.  But then it grew and I enjoy messing with paper and glue.  I like to make and hand bind my own journals (and have sold a few).  So I am always on the lookout for new ideas.

This year I have been part of the One Little Word project over at bigpictureclasses.com. And while it has been fun, I found it too be too little each month.  I personally think its hard work to find the focus on a particular word for  a year with one or two exercises a month.  So I have been adding more stuff to each month to better keep my focus!

So on to lapbooking.  Lapbooking is a method used mostly by home schoolers for children to focus on a particular area of study.  It boils down to a portfolio of journaling, scrapping, illustrating using muti-media, collage, writing and other techniques to illustrate what they learned about a particular subject.  Then when finished they can always go back and peruse their work.  It helps to re-enforce what was learned.

I think it is the perfect medium for scrapbooking.  Particularly if you are focusing on a specific event, trip, time period or other singular thing you want to incorporate into your scrapping and or life.  A google search on lapbooks will get you hundreds of links but the gist is the same:

• Make a portfolio.  Typically using file folders or poster board or whatever.. Skies the limit
• typical with fold outs, envelopes, pictures, drawings whatever ephemera you would like
• Ability to add small flip book, step books any thing as long as you can access it
• Make, gather or otherwise come by "CONTENT" for your folio based on your focus
• Assemble your content into your portfolio.  When satisfied, move on to the next one.
• Enjoy it.

My idea is to spend a year working on these.  One a Month, with a unifying theme...So...Join me on the adventure over at Lifebooking