Inspired by the now iconic Oregon Love image, the Colorado Love Flag represents the Rocky Mountain way of life that so many of us love. I love Colorado, and I want everyone to know it.

I’ve been seeing the real Colorado flag everywhere these days, and I want to see the Colorado Love flag everywhere, too.    I had a bunch of stickers printed up, and I’ve been selling them over at Colorado Love. I even toyed with the idea of securing a trademark and starting a business, but I’m honestly, I’m too busy for that these days.  I’d still love to see the Colorado Love Flag everywhere, though.

So, I’m providing a high-res file of the Colorado Love Flag, distributed under a Creative Commons license, for you to download and play with.  Put it on t-shirts, hats, bags, whatever you want.  If you do make something, I’d sure love it if you’d send me one.  Send me a picture or a link and I’ll link it up on my Colorado Love website.

Colorado Love Flag – Large size – 1350 x 900 pixels

Colorado Love Flag by Miriam Lynah is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Jakob is one of the river gnomes, a group noted for their extraordinary bridge building abilities. A sheep herder by trade, he has now turned over much of his flock to his son, Atticus. Now, Jakob enjoys cultivating his prize-winning orchids and over-indulging in crossword puzzles.

Jakob on Etsy

And crossing the very last thing of your list?  There’s nothing like it.

But there’s one list I’ll never finish.

The List.

Do you have a List?  They’re sometimes called “Bucket Lists,” “Life Lists,” or “Things To Do Before I Die.”  That last one is way too morbid for me, so I’ve always just thought of it as the List.  Always with a a capital letter, mind you.

I’ve been keeping the List for pretty much forever.  I was a sophomore in high school the first time I wrote it down, but it’s been in my head for as long as I can remember.  And ever since then, I’ve kept adding.

I’ve marked a few things off my list, but they get added much more quickly.  And that’s just how I like it.

I just read this interesting article on BoingBoing about how the average salary of college-educated US men and women are in sharp decline.  There’s an accompanying article by economist Michael Mandel that asks what policymakers can do to try to reverse this downward trend.  Interesting stuff.

But then I took a closer look at the numbers.  Wait a minute.  Men’s salaries are down, sure.  But they are “down” to $59,000.  Now take a  look at the graph of the female college grads.  The highest average salary for a woman?  Way back in 2003…topping out at $58,000.

Yup.  At our most lucrative time in history, ladies, we were still making $1,000 less than the lowest average salary for men in the last 10 years.

This is a particularly striking example of how poor data visualization can completely obscure a huge pattern in the data.  By putting the graphs side by side, we assume that they line up.  But in this case, they definitely don’t.  Let’s take a look at them on the same scale.

This is just a quick and dirty mock-up, but I think you get the picture.  Now here’s, MY question, policymakers…what can you do about this?

We picked up this plain Jane pink wallet at Savers.  It has lots of pockets, a change purse, and it even has a calculator inside.

But, there’s a problem.  It also has a bad case of Stuck-on Price Tag-itis.  Paired with Peeling Vinyl Syndrome, this can be a terminal diagnosis.

But dressed up with ribbon, sequins, and one old earring, now it’s even better than new.

Peeling Vinyl Syndrome cured!  And the girl loved it. 

The stickers are finally here!

My Subaru is very, very happy.

Do you love Colorado, too? Get your very own over at Colorado Love.

When Bruce bought this house, it came with lattice on every single window (to, ya know, complement the shutters and porch balustrade with heart-shaped cut-outs).  He pulled down most of them years ago, and they resurfaced recently during the Great Shed Cleanout of 2011.  With a  little white spray paint and glue, I repurposed two of them into this great scarf rack.

You can do it too!  Here’s how:

DIY Scarf Display Rack

Materials:

Window lattice
Spray paint
Glue
Hooks (for installation)

Locate some old window lattice.  This lattice was made of plastic, so I’m hoping that means less snagging as I pull the scarves on and off the rack.

Spray paint the lattice a color that matches your décor.  We don’t really have a décor, so I went with white.

Let the paint dry overnight.  Just to be sure, I decided to forget about the project for about 10 days.  The paint was really dry.

Stack the pieces together, overlapping them to create a pleasing geometric shape.

Find some industrial strength glue that you opened a couple years ago.  Muck around with it until you manage to extract some still viscous glue.  Ew, I said “viscous.”

Use said glue to glue the pieces together.  Forget about the project for another several days.

We used these long-stemmed hooks to mount the scarf rack on the wall.  This one went in a little crooked but you can’t tell once all the scarves are on there.  I recommend using some wallboard anchors if you can’t find (or don’t feel like looking for) a stud.

Ta da!  It’s getting cold around here, so this project is finished just in time for scarf season.

It’s autumn!  Up here in the mountains, the leaves are already starting to turn and it’s cooler every day.

  Okay, I’m lying.  There’s been near record-breaking heat and it feels just like summer.  But the leaves really are quite pretty this time of year.

In honor of my second favorite season, I decided whip up a pattern for these crochet aspen leaves.

Whip up.  Hee hee.  Oh, ha ha.

So it took a little longer than the phrase “whip up” might lead you to believe.  But I still managed to watch a whole bunch of football while I worked this one up.

Wanna give it a try?

Crocheted aspen leaves

Materials:

Yellow worsted weight yarn
Size H/8 (5 mm) crochet hook
Tapestry needle

Instructions:

Round 1:  Ch 4, join to form a ring (or use a Magic Ring).  Into ring, sc 9, join

Round 2: Ch 2, work 2 dc in each of next 3 sc, then [3dc, 2dc, 3dc] across next 3 sc, then work 2 dc into last three sc, join

Round 3: Do not chain! Sc in next dc, ch 3, sc in next dc, join with a slip stitch and bind off.  Weave in ends and you’re done!

Now I need to decide what I’ll make with all of them…  A scarf?  A mobile?  A garland?  What are you going to make?

If you do make something, leave a little note in the comments – I want to see what you come up with!

I noticed my go-to hoop of late, a red poly-pro with a questionable tape job, was starting to corner out at the connection. I ripped it open, figuring the connector had slipped to one side.

Nope. I broke that sucker right in half! Holy moly, I guess I was hooping pretty hard. Has that ever happened to anyone else before?

There’s something new and certainly *different* fermenting in Coal Creek Brewery tonight.

Is it beer? No way.
Mead? Nay, sir.
Wine, then? Well, you’re getting closer…

That’s right, friends…

We’re brewing margarita flavored wine Zima!

Disclaimer: This is not real Zima. Zima was a malt beverage produced by Coors but they stopped making it a while ago. I could check Wikipedia for the exact date, but I took the Coors brewery tour a few years ago and so I have firsthand knowledge, which is better than Wikipedia.

Real disclaimer: This product is not Zima. Man, I wish it was.

Disclaimer to the disclaimer: I have never written a disclaimer before.

We’re going to bottle it, rather than just keg it up. Why? So we can just throw the bottles in the freezer.

Oh, that’s right…frozen margaritas, right out of the bottle.  Yum!