Round Up

In this round up: embroidery patterns meet technology, bag making tutorials, underbritches, french seams and hand-rolled hems, collages, decoupaged ceilings, stenciled cement, space-aged chicken coop, sheep, recycle Brita filters, recycle CDs, wash fruit & veg, persimmons, Obama and food politics, Obama and criminal justice, and a funny post title.

SharonB, formerly of In A Minute Ago, currently of Pin Tangle, shared an online resource for vintage embroidery patterns, J. F. Ingalls, which is cool. But what's even cooler is she links to two tutorials from the same resource about how to use GIMP to turn illustrations from the catalog into usable designs AND to enlarge a design without getting the fuzzies, i.e. it shows you how to turn images into a vector images.

I have this very specific drawstring bag project in the sourcing materials phase that might be helped out by one or more of the bag tutorials collected by KathRed over at WhipUp.

I'm not the only one interested in Angry Chicken's underthings. WhipUp mentioned her unmentionables and collected a few more panty production links.

I'm not remotely interested in making a french scarf, but I am interested in learning how to sew a french seam and how to sew a hand-rolled hem both of which Colette explains clearly with beautiful pictures. Via WhipUp.

I'm in love with impactist's photos of cut paper collages over at Design*Sponge.

When I was in my extreme fish-themed bathroom phase I would have been all about decoupaging my bathroom ceiling with printouts of fish after seeing this awesome DIY decoupaged ceiling project over at Design*Sponge. I'm over fish in bathrooms, but I wonder what else I could do.

Design*Sponge has a Before & After showing some pretty impressive stenciling on a cement patio. This has totally set my mind racing about ways to spruce up our back patio with paint.

Yanko Design featured a very modern looking chicken coop via Re-Nest. I can't actually find any information about whether it is in production. C'est la vie. It might look more sleek in the backyard than the Eglu, I found in June also at Re-Nest, which appears to be for sale in the U.K.

Of course we all know chickens are the gateway-livestock to sheep. Serious Eats posted about people becoming sheep farmers and artisanal cheese makers . . . a dream I know at least a few of us share.

According to Re-Nest, the Take Back the Filter campaign, which I mentioned back in May, has succeeded! So start setting aside your used Brita filters because starting in January you can drop off filters at Whole Foods Markets or mail them in.

Did you know you can recycle CDs and DVDs? It's true, according to Re-Nest.

Re-Nest suggests a novel & eco-friendly method to really clean produce.

To supplement my persimmon post, Re-Nest has more information about persimmon buying and consuming.

On the food politics front, Gristmill has been closely watching the Obama transition team for signs about the future of the Department of Agriculture and other key food-policy posts.

In other political news, Prof. Berman shared his thoughts on what presumptive Attorney General Eric Holder might do in terms of criminal justice and sentencing. He also shared his criminal justice wish list for the incoming Obama administration. He zooms in on the criminal justice section of the a new publication from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, entitled "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President."

Lastly, The Most Hilarious Blog Post Title if You Think Like a 12 Year Old Boy: Dingell Waxed

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