Outdoor therapy, the cabin fever is over

Nature is still behind schedule, it was one of the longest winters I can remember.

Our organic garden is in progress and Oscar enjoys my outside activities. When I plant he is right there with me, watching every step.

It's so good to feel the warm sun and dig in the dirt.

Gypsy Fashion, Myths and Reality

I have been calling my colorful bright patchwork tiered skirts "gypsy skirts", my fringed wrap scarf "gypsy scarf" and I have written about the inner gypsy soul in my product description.

Somehow it has bothered me to just jump on the costume train and talk about my handmade clothes as "gypsy clothes" and just leave it at that.

I'd like to tell a little story instead of writing an anthropology or social piece here.

When I was a little girl my grandmother used to tease me "The gypsies have lost you when they came through the village. (I had real dark hair as a toddler)

Or if I was running the streets "The gypsies will snatch you and take you away.

I have always wondered about these folks who apparently concerned my grandmother so much, and not in a very favorable way.

It was the 1960 in rural Bavaria and tolerance to anything strange was not anything the villagers would worry about, leave alone political correctness.

When I was in grade school I met the first gypsy girl, a classmate who would attend school on and off. Her name was Maria. She sometimes would disappear for weeks or months, "when she was on the road with her family". As a little girl who had never experienced anything but the tight knit and very opinionated small town people she was of great interest to me.

Her long dark her and slightly tanned skin made her a pretty girl, her long skirts all year around and her colorful combination of patterns set her apart from the rest of us.

Needless to say she didn't make any friends in the class room, we stayed away from her and she kept to herself.

Later we sometimes drove out of town where there was a dwelling with caravans, cloth lines and a bunch of metal crap in the yard. Out of the city limits. I asked my dad who lived there. He said the "gypsies".

I often wondered about their freedom of traveling around, living without nosy town neighbors, fantasized about being free to live however I wanted but yet was scared of being an outsider.

Later as a grown up woman I have met several "gypsies", and by that time I knew that they didn't like to be called by this derogative term, but considered themselves Sinti or Roma, depending on their branch of heritage.

Most of them were not nomads any longer, but the assimilation was never 100%, you just could tell by their clothes and a certain life style. Yeah, and they like to haggle and I learned not to get insulted by "hagglers" when I was vending on flea markets. That's just how biz is done:)

After the opening of the borders of former Soviet block countries, the South Eastern European Romas have traveled traveling all over Europe and caused a lot of animosity among non-Romas.

I have read a lot of news about racial prejudice and even attacks towards Roma dwellings, very disturbing articles about Napoli, Italy and the Balkan states. But of course my home country Germany has been in the news as well for intolerance. Most Europeans who have inbred the values of the Lutherian thinking of hard work, living at one place, obedience towards law and authorities, have a hard time with women sitting on the side walk, infants on their laps and holding out their hands for money. Or kids running after tourists and ask for money.

It's not always a prejudice, but often it is the reality to survive poverty and keep up old traditions of independence from state and main stream society.

If you have visited a large Southern European city like Rome or Barcelona then you probably have experienced begging on the streets or even pick pocketing at tourist magnets. It happens, and it happens among other ethnicities as well.

But, we are humans and we are all people (=rom) and neither one of us is without flaw. Some countries and nationalities fight wars, kill their enemies, oppress their minorities or enslave their females.

So, who are we to judge?

Some of the internet message boards against "gypsies" that I came across during my little research were down right hateful, ignorant and frightening.

The following blog is a good source for more information and is an advocate for tolerance and ending the racial discrimination.

(GREAT BLOG ABOUT CONTEMPORARY NEWS ABOUT SINTI AND ROMA AROUND THE GLOBE)

New hippie dread tams -- the back to basics crochet marathon

Sometimes it happens.

I start making one tam design and I can't stop making it.

This new back to basics tam line is a revival of basic patterns, eye pleasing colors for men and women and just a pretty sturdy hat for all the kind people who need the extra slouch.

Different sizes to accommodate the various hair volumes.

Want to check them out more?

Go here.

BTW if you come from google and are searching for a really large tam, I do custom work on a regular basis.

16 inches in depth from crown to rim for a longer sock tam or 12 inches for a really wide crown tam.

Happy Easter to the hippie land:)

Shame on hipocrites -- Things that I cannot leave unsaid today

Hipocrite:

1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion

2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings

My blog usually is not politically faceted and I mainly state my liberal views in privacy, but today I feel compelled to write this post about issues that deeply anger me.

The so-called defenders of life turn to threaten the lives of democratic politicians, their children and grand children. Shame on you...and to mask your hate with religious reasoning or conservative views is just a plain blasphemy.

And as a born and raised Catholic I feel ashamed about actions of the official church: covering up the crimes of a child molester. Hasn't there been enough wrong-doing in the name of the church?

No wonder many Non-Christians state : I like your Jesus, but I don't like your Christians.

The pictures and headlines:

Pope failed to defrock U.S. sex abuse priest

Vatican halted trial after cleric’s plea for leniency to future pontiff

(NY Times article)

Democrats face death threats and vandalism over healthcare reform bill

Bricks thrown amid calls to violence on web forum as Senate wrangling continues

(Guardian article)

Cotton or wool, that's the question?

It's officially spring, but the weather can't make up its mind seems like.

After we were covered in a blanket of snow on the weekend (seriously, a winter storm in March) we enjoyed one sunny warm day at the beginning of the week just to drift back into semi winter/spring mix with clouds, chills and some sunshine in the evening.

The new hippie tams listed reflect the mix of the seasons:

cotton and open weave and some chill chasers aka warm dread tams.

(listed on Etsy and on my website, links on the right menu bar if you want to check them out:)

German Deli Surprise

My son and daughter in law had a great way to surprise me the other day...with a package from a German Deli.

Many goodies that I have missed for quite some time. And as often it is the very basic simple things that give the most joy:

bread rolls with poppy seeds, Mohnbroetchen:)

candy, Haribo:)

natural mineral water, Gerolsteiner

(There were more goodies in my box..Wurst, Salami, desserts....and they are disappearing pretty fast, too)

Hippie retro crochet from the 70s

is such an inspiration.

Mainly for entertainment I ordered craft magazines from that era on Etsy, but I think I will actually attempt to make some similar designs for the shop, or myself.

Enjoy the cult of outrageous crochet designs:)