Things to worry about:
Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship
Worry about…

Things not to worry about:
Don’t worry about popular opinion
Don’t worry about dolls
Don’t worry about the past
Don’t worry about the future
Don’t worry about growing up
Don’t worry about anybody getting ahead of you
Don’t worry about triumph
Don’t worry about failure unless it comes through your own fault
Don’t worry about mosquitoes
Don’t worry about flies
Don’t worry about insects in general
Don’t worry about parents
Don’t worry about boys
Don’t worry about disappointments
Don’t worry about pleasures
Don’t worry about satisfactions

Things to think about:
What am I really aiming at?
How good am I really in comparison to my contemporaries in regard to:
(a) Scholarship
(b) Do I really understand about people and am I able to get along with them?
(c) Am I trying to make my body a useful instrument or am I neglecting it?

It’s been just over a year since one of the worst environmental disasters in US history and as other heartbreaking disasters take over the headlines it’s easy to turn our attention elsewhere. Unfortunately, there is still a massive clean-up needed in The Gulf and I’m proud to say my friend Tippy Tippens is doing what she can to help and not let us forget. Tippy lives in New Orleans and is the founder of Bird Project.

Tippy just sent me one of her beautiful soap sculptures, a poignant reminder of the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A ceramic bird made from Louisiana clay is covered in black soap made by Sweet Olive Soap Works. The soap is made with fair trade olive oil, glycerin, aloe, cypress scent and activated black charcoal. It smells beautiful and each time you wash your hands with it, you come a step closer to revealing the clean white bird inside. Tippy selflessly donates 50% of her profits to the Gulf Restoration Network and IBRRC.

This project is so well thought through, with so many layers of importance. Please check out her site and read this Huffington Post article for more details. Support Tippy’s beautiful project and “put a bird on it”! (Sorry Tippy, I couldn’t resist!)

My heart is breaking for Japan and I’ve been thinking of ways I can help. Should I give a percentage of my sales? Should I urge people not to buy my bags this month, but donate the money instead? Should I just make a personal donation and be done with it?

I just read a couple articles (here and here) that left me questioning where and when to donate so that they will best be used for relief efforts in Japan. This morning, I worked my shift at the coop and came across a poster urging donations to the Japan Society, so I checked it out. It seems to me, they may be the best place to send contributions: “100% of your generous tax-deductible contributions will go to organization(s) that directly help victims recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake and tsunamis that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.”

I’ve just returned from a fantastic week in London visiting Ed’s family and doing a bit of shopping (and a lot of browsing). I saw this woodblock poster at a couple different shops and I just love it. It was designed and printed by Anthony Burrill and is exactly in line with my personal ethos. (I also just ordered one for the studio!)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW_7i6T_H78&w=720&h=390]Annie Leonard of The Story of Stuff has a new film and I couldn’t agree with it more. The electronics industry is so careless. Is it even possible for them to make their parts universal or upgradable and still maintain financial growth when we are so accustomed to equating tangible products and shiny new designs with better?

There is something so luxurious about linen. It comes from the flax plant and it is one of the oldest textiles in existence. It is hand-crafted and cannot be successfully produced on mass scale. With all of the textile technology and synthetics available today, none can come close to the natural beauty of linen.