Pigeons

In my etsy perusing I came across this lovely photo of a pigeon.  As my family and friends could tell you, I was interested in pigeons for a while, and told everyone I know about it!  It all started when I saw a dove, and I noticed that it walked like a pigeon, sounded like a pigeon, AND looked like a pigeon. 

Then I started wondering where pigeons are originally from, since now they live all around the world.  That seemed strange since people seem to be one of the few other animals to have that distinction, most creatures seem to have one habitat.

 Here are a few lovely items relating to pigeons that I found on etsy:

1. photo    4. t-shirt
 2. beads   5. pattern
3. decal    6. photo

So, answers to all these questions from Wikipedia:

Pigeons are a type of dove.  Which is really funny to me.  I've heard that people in cities call pigeons rats with wings, whereas doves are generally highly esteemed birds that represent peace.  Turns out they're pretty much the same thing; one's just a city bird, and the other is a country bird. 

Pigeons are originally from Southern Europe, Southern Asia and Northern Africa.  They are now spread around the globe to all the places inhabited by people, because people have been domesticating pigeons for a long time.  Many of the domesticated birds were freed or escaped, and bred with wild pigeons to create the feral pigeons we have today.  Latching onto people seems to be a great strategy to spread your seed all over the world, and have a very successful species.

So, that's probably more than you ever wanted to know about pigeons.  Enjoy the mini treasury above!

International Women's Day

Today March 8th, is International Women's Day.  The day was started in 1909 in the United States.  It was associated with the socialist movement.  In 1910, at the first international women's conference Clara Zetkin proposed that the day be made an international holiday.  The holiday was celebrated across Europe for a time, but lost favor during the cold war because it came to be associated with the Soviet Union.

The UN began sponsoring IWD in 1975 in honor of the remaining work that needs to be done to protect and promote the equal rights of women.

So, here's a mini treasury as a reminder of all that our foremothers did for equality

 

Suffragette Doll     Art Yarn      Suffragette Hair

Green Cloche       Two Votes   Suffrage for Sale

As a crafter, I am indebted to the women of this era.  First, they used their creativity and smarts to develop the crafts that I love today.  Also, they made crafting a choice, as opposed to a necessity.  Now I have the opportunity to choose what I want to do, and I choose to craft, and vote!

The choices that we have now are still not complete, however.  As long as the wage gap persists, and traditionally "female" jobs are devalued, we still have a lot to fight for.

Another inequality I am recognizing in the way I deal with the world is violence against women.  Especially on a college campus, I am all too aware of that problem.  1/4 women will be sexually assaulted in college.  The violence on college campuses means that while I think about my surroundings, how much I've had to drink, and the necessity of walking with someone else, my male counterparts are oblivious of all of this.

These are the ways that gender inequality effects my thinking, and my life.  There are many more problems that span the world.  Today we should recognize all of those problems, but also appreciate how far we've come!

* The etsy front page is honoring IWD today too!  Cool yo!

Time for treasuries!

Two treasuries: One by our own Rachel (inspired by the smell of clove and fir in the lip balm she was working on: the woods), and a beautiful treasury west by sacredsuds including our own Carolina Skies necklace.  Thanks so much to sacredsuds, the treasury's beautiful!

KNIreading

I've been KNIreading.  What's that?  Well, it's a word I made up for what I do when I don't want to be reading.  To KNIread I take half of my concentration that I should be using in my reading, and apply it to some simple knitting that I'm doing at the same time.

Don't tell any of my professors or TAs!

(By the way, this word is pronounced with the K sound, because it's better that way, and I can make the decision since I made the word up)

(In case you were curious, the picture is of the largest retirement village in the US.  I was reading about ideas of community...at least I think that was what it was about...I was definitely doing a seed stitch though, I know that!)

Powder Blue and Plum

New treasury, inspired by a new listing, Carolina Skies:

 

I took the color and mod feel of this necklace for a new treasury, and added a little plum!

 

 creaturefeature             aBreathofFrenchair      3squares 

   strawberrypaintbrush    beckaboo                    impurevessels 

     HAREandDRUM        seventyseventyone       orangetwist 

       thescrapbookqueen      theleahsaur                  solsticejewelry

click the picture to check out the treasury, for as long as it lasts