When I first saw this, I scratched my head and wondered … why?

Well, what I’m about to show you may not be at the top of your Christmas list,

but it has a certain novelty all the same.

Take a look:

Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST

Your eyes do not deceive you.

This lovely wooden case indeed contains an undeniably artisan make-your-own high fructose corn syrup kit.

Photo courtesy of Maya Weinstein via Co.EXIST

It includes hard-to-find ingredients such as Yellow Dent #2, glucose isomerase, and sulfuric acid.

Nope, you won’t find those in the baking aisle, girls.

This kit is more “chem lab” than “kitchen.”

You’re wondering, too, aren’t you?

Why on earth would I want to make this sordid sweetener?

As you may have guessed, this is more of a tongue-in-cheek affair, but it doesn’t come without a dose of seriousness.

“The Kit provides the user with a way to directly interact with an ingredient that is typically only produced in large-scale factories behind closed doors,” explains designer Maya Weinstein. “The kit allows everyone to be a citizen food scientist and take control of the mysteries behind industrial food production.”

See what I mean?

Weinstein says that her kits could be used to educate both kids and adults about how processed foods are fabricated, while simultaneously satisfying the mad scientist in us all. “It’s really meant to show you something that you don’t already know—what industrial products are made of.”

It might make a crafty Christmas gift after all!

Weinstein is also contemplating a cookbook with recipes for other industrialized ingredients like food dyes and MSG. Watch her unconventional cooking show below. Do you think it has a chance on the Food Network?

Well, after years of being snubbed in jolly old England, it’s no wonder that a handful of red-capped garden residents might find pleasing refuge in the unsuspecting green spaces of Overland Park, Kansas.

Photo by Sassy Gardener via Wikimedia Commons

The Midwest is famous for its hospitality, after all.

But who are these mysterious immigrants?

Perhaps we’ll never know.

They aren’t answering their doors …

Photo courtesy of KSHB.com

According to news network KSHB in Overland Park, “Gnome homes are popping up all over the city.”

That’s right, gnome homes.

Continue reading →

Professional photographer Jaime Moore, feeling the influence of mainstream girls’ adulation of Disney princesses, decided that when her daughter turned five, she wanted to celebrate her birthday a bit differently …

And I love it!

Here’s her daughter, Emma, all gussied up (or down!) as real, strong female heroines throughout history, in his photo series titled “Not Just a Girl.”

Susan B. Anthony

” … forget conventionalisms; Forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; Think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval. I had rather … make history than write it. Failure is impossible.” – Susan B. Anthony

Amelia Earhart

” … now and then, women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do.  – Amelia Earhart

Coco Chanel

” … in order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different. Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself. A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants … ” – Coco Chanel

Helen Keller

“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.” – Helen Keller

Jane Goodall

“My family has very strong women. My mother never laughed at my dream of Africa, even though everyone else did because we didn’t have any money, because Africa was the ‘Dark Continent,’ and because I was a girl. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

Emma for President, 2044!

Ever been in a stinky situation?

Yes? Well, have I got a product for you!!!

No? (Me neither 😉 )

For those who answered yes, enjoy this solution to all things, er, dairy-err.

You know for your husband … boyfriend … brother … or dad … *ahem.

Earlier in the day, we’d taken photos of our little Mia napping in our T@bitha trailer that’s decorated in my Bee My Honey Moda fabric collection that will be in quilt stores next January. Moki jumped onto the desk and snuggled up next to Mia for a little … cat nap.

Have you ever wondered what your brain waves would look like …

if they were knit, as in k2, p2?

No, I didn’t think so.

I’d never considered it either, until I heard about Knitic.

While it sounds like an invention concocted by the likes of Jane Jetson,

Image courtesy of www.scarlet.nl/~ivo/photo_JUDY.html

“NeuroKnitting” is not a figment of space-age fiction.

It’s a nifty experiment that has been designed to translate the brain’s reactions to music into a unique scarf pattern by way of a modified knitting machine.

Photo by Mar Canet via Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/mcanet/8752517057/in/set-72157633528626109/

Photo by Mar Canet via Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/mcanet/9110787760/in/set-72157633528626109/

I’m not sure how this will affect old-fashioned knitters like you and me in years to come,

but “space age” is not as far off as we’d once imagined it.

MaryJane meets Jane Jetson—who knows?

For now, take a sneak peek at the dawn of NeuroKnitting:

Photographer Nick Olson and fashion designer Lilah Horwitz left their daily jobs and hoofed it into the gorgeous mountains of West Virginia. When they arrived, they began to build a house …

Published in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on September 4, 2013, the following obituary is full of wise tidings from “Pink.”

Mullaney, Mary A. “Pink”

If you’re about to throw away an old pair of pantyhose, stop. Consider: Mary Agnes Mullaney (you probably knew her as “Pink”), who entered eternal life on Sunday, September 1, 2013.

Her spirit is carried on by her six children, 17 grandchildren, three surviving siblings in New “Joisey,” and an extended family of relations and friends from every walk of life. We were blessed to learn many valuable lessons from Pink during her 85 years, among them: Never throw away old pantyhose. Use the old ones to tie gutters, child-proof cabinets, tie toilet flappers, or hang Christmas ornaments.

Also: If a possum takes up residence in your shed, grab a barbecue brush to coax him out. If he doesn’t leave, brush him for twenty minutes and let him stay.

Let a dog (or two or three) share your bed. Say the rosary while you walk them.

Go to church with a chicken sandwich in your purse. Cry at the consecration, every time. Give the chicken sandwich to your homeless friend after mass.

Go to a nursing home and kiss everyone. When you learn someone’s name, share their patron saint’s story, and their feast day, so they can celebrate. Invite new friends to Thanksgiving dinner. If they are from another country and you have trouble understanding them, learn to “listen with an accent.”

Never say mean things about anybody; they are “poor souls to pray for.”

Put picky-eating children in the box at the bottom of the laundry chute, tell them they are hungry lions in a cage, and feed them veggies through the slats.

Correspond with the imprisoned and have lunch with the cognitively challenged.

Do the Jumble every morning.

Keep the car keys under the front seat so they don’t get lost.

Make the car dance by lightly tapping the brakes to the beat of songs on the radio.

Offer rides to people carrying a big load or caught in the rain or summer heat. Believe the hitchhiker you pick up who says he is a landscaper and his name is “Peat Moss.”

Help anyone struggling to get their kids into a car or shopping cart or across a parking lot.

Give to every charity that asks. Choose to believe the best about what they do with your money, no matter what your children say they discovered online.

Allow the homeless to keep warm in your car while you are at Mass.

Take magazines you’ve already read to your doctors’ office for others to enjoy. Do not tear off the mailing label, “Because if someone wants to contact me, that would be nice.”

In her lifetime, Pink made contact time after time. Those who’ve taken her lessons to heart will continue to ensure that a cold drink will be left for the overheated garbage collector and mail carrier, every baby will be kissed, every nursing home resident will be visited, the hungry will have a sandwich, the guest will have a warm bed and soft nightlight, and the encroaching possum will know the soothing sensation of a barbecue brush upon its back.

Above all, Pink wrote—to everyone, about everything. You may read this and recall a letter from her that touched your heart, tickled your funny bone, or maybe made you say “huh?”

She is survived by her children and grandchildren, whose photos she would share with prospective friends in the checkout line: Tim (wife Janice, children Timmy, Joey, T.J., Miki and Danny); Kevin (wife Kathy, children Kacey, Ryan, Jordan and Kevin); Jerry (wife Gita, children Nisha and Cathan); MaryAnne; Peter (wife Maria Jose, children Rodrigo and Paulo); and Meg (husband David Vartanian, children Peter, Lily, Jerry and Blase); siblings Anne, Helen, and Robert; and many in-laws, nieces, nephews, friends, and family too numerous to list but not forgotten.

Pink is reunited with her husband and favorite dance and political debate partner, Dr. Gerald L. Mullaney, and is predeceased by six siblings.