Blue Yonder

Like Mama Always Said - May's Blue Yonder First Monday Contest

Well hey y'all, and happy new week to you!

It's been a busy busy weekend here at Blue Yonder, and I am plumb wore out. I'd sleep for three days if certain little so and sos would let me. But no... There is no rest for the weary.

And that little adage leads me to May's Blue Yonder First Monday Contest.

Since it is May, the month in which we celebrate the mamas in our lives, I thought I'd make this contest about moms and the wisdom that they impart.

All you have to do to enter is finish this sentence, "Just like my Mama (grandmother, great grandmother, great aunt - any older woman who fed you a steady diet of fresh baked cookies and insightful axioms) always said, ..."

Maybe you grew up hearing that "If you lie down with the dogs, you wake up with the fleas" like I did, or how "every Mama crow thinks her baby is the blackest," or that, "anything worth doing is worth doing right" - proverbial wisdom that summed up life in a snappy little well turned phrase.

Or maybe it's more practical words that still ring in your ears ... about planting potatoes on Valentine's day, or how the ring around the moon means it will rain soon, or that a penny saved is a penny earned.

Whatever it is, let's share all that Mama good sense, shall we?

The loosely assembled rules are as follows:

You can enter as many times as you like between now and May 31st, midnight, Central time. The winner will be announced June 1st, right here at Blue Yonder.

To enter, just leave a comment (or 10) on this post that begins, "Just like mama always said..." You can tell me more about it after that, but start with that, please, so I know exactly what it is that came out of mama's mouth.

Each entry must contain a different bit of wisdom. In other words, you can't tell me 20 times that Mama told you that your eyes would stick like that if you didn't knock it off.

There will be 3 winners this month.

1. The sweetest Mama saying will receive a vintage apron and several of my very favorite pie recipes. Sweets for sweet mama! (I haven't photographed the apron yet, but I will today, and I'll post it here then. Sorry - as I said, plumb wore out...)

2. The spunkiest mama saying will win a jar of my very favorite spunky snack food, Miss Ruby's Ya Ya Peppers!

Ms. Ruby herself sent me a BIGGO box full of the peppers after I went in to buy some, and she was out. She took down my address and had SIX jars sent to me, just out of the kindness of her heart. You'll never meet a sweeter soul than that, and you'll never eat a better pepper either! You can stuff 'em into meat with some herbed goat cheese before grilling, or just eat 'em on top of cream cheese and crackers. Truly though, there's no need to stand on ceremony, you can just eat 'em straight out of the jar with a fork. I have never been a pepper eater in all my life until Ms. Ruby made me a believer.

Along with your peppers, you will receive a copy of Haiku Mama, cuz it's spunky, and funny and written by an Austin gal, which makes it even better.

3. The most hilarious entry will receive a bookmark, handmade by me (along the lines of these) and a copy of my latest read, Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. I've read it before, several times, and it never fails to touch me, make me laugh, and by gosh it is written just. SO. well!

So, all month, when you hear that Mama voice in the back of your mind, telling you that watched pots don't boil and men don't buy the cow when they can get the milk for free, drop in and let us hear from Mama too!

April's Contest Winner Is...

Well the moment has arrived...

Time to announce a winner of the very first, Blue Yonder First Monday Contest.

It was a tough call. You people are so talented, so resourceful, so crafty!

You know, back in the day, as Deb so perfectly said, people had to "use it up, wear it out, make do or do without." So, I have to say that now that we find ourselves in a pretty affluent, single serving, take and toss society, it is heartening to me to see people reusing, repurposing and reinventing not because they have to, but because they choose to.

They do it because it's good for the earth, and also because it's good for the pocketbook. They do it as a creative outlet, and they do it because they are hungry for lives that have more soul, more meaning, more purpose than one can find on a discount store shelf.

From the incredibly prolific to the incredibly talented, from grilling to gardening, from things you wear to things that warm your babes, things for carrying books, things for storing (books, clothes, sewing bits and wood too!), things to inspire and things to remember, and things that are just plain cool , you have all just floored me with your creativity and resourcefulness.

So really, I'm not trying to feign graciousness or anything like that, I'm serious - it was REALLY hard to decide on a winner. It was SO hard, in fact, that I'm going to have to go with two winners:

First, hats off to an incredible little family of repurposers. Mama Miguette gives sweet new life to forgotton things. She's full of soul and spunk and it flows out into the the lovely things that she makes. It was her husband though that put me over the edge with
this. Their sweet dog , Ripper, died and of course, left a hole in the family. So Miguette's husband, Peter, made wrist cuffs for himself and their son Colby out of Ripper's collar. I think it's pretty fantastic, this idea of having a little bit of a a beloved pal to carry with you.

Colby is learning to ride a two wheeler now, and I noticed in the photos that he has his cuff on. I imagine that if Ripper were still with them, he'd be chasing behind Colby, worrying over him. It makes me glad to think that in that little strap of leather on his arm, there still remains the love of a faithful friend.

Miguette, send me your address, and I'll get your goodies shipped off!

My other favorite repurpose was
this one from Elissa (which I do think counts, because it was her idea - only, Elissa, I might have to insist that you share your goodies with your folks :-). The idea was this: a pew from the church she grew up in, the very same that her father attended as a boy, became a lovely bed for her and her husband. I love this so much because a) it was born of necessity and b) because its a little piece of her family's history given new life.

I imagine her dad swinging his legs in that pew as a boy, then her, as a little girl, sitting there, with her hands in her lap and her head bowed. I think about her parents sawing and hammering, sanding and staining and all the while thinking of their little girl, and wishing her well in her new married life. I think about little feet running down the hall to jump in that bed with mama and daddy... new prayers of thanksgiving being offered up from that pew. I think it is really such a perfect testimony to the power and richness of family history.

Elissa email me all your info, and I'll send out a prize package containing I don't know what, but most certainly something good to read, something old to love, and something yummy to eat.

For everyone else who played along, I want you to know that reading all of your entries has been so wholly inspiring. Thank you, truly.

And now on to MAY!!!

I know that I said I would give you all the details of the new contest, but... well, it occurred to me that it is not Monday, and this is the Blue Yonder First MONDAY Contest. So, I'm gonna hold off until, you guessed it, Monday!

Until then, I'm going to steal the wonderful closing words of Garrison Keillor:

"Be well, do good work, keep in touch."

The First First Monday

You know I am constantly amazed and in awe of the women out here in Blogland... women who create beautiful things, women who pour their hearts and souls into mindful motherhood and artful homemaking, women who stand up for what they believe in, women who are holding down the fort, women who are making their way despite the odds.

I tell ya, whenever I sink into worrying about what the world is coming to, I take solace in the fact that there are so many women out there working each and every day to make the world a better place, one child, one clothesline, one reusable grocery bag, one kind word at a time.

It reminds me of a story I read years ago, that has stuck with me. The book, The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio is the true story of a woman who, through sheer grit, determination, and a heaping helping of creativity, managed to keep her family of 12 afloat by entering contests of skill. She wrote jingles and composed essays between diapering and ironing and in so doing taught her 10 children that anything is possible. Read an excerpt here (It seems that there was a movie made about the book, but I haven't seen it, so I don't know if it's good or not.)

In honor of "the Prize Winner", and all the many many moms out there, doing their best with what they have, (and because it's just a lot of fun) I've decided to host a monthly contest of skill, here at Blue Yonder.

Tune in on the first Monday of each month for a new contest, with a new topic, and a new batch of prize goodies to give away. And while I know that today is not actually the first Monday of April, I just couldn't wait to get started! So here we go...

April's Blue Yonder First Monday Contest is:

Tell me your most creative repurpose. Maybe you've woven plastic bags into bathmats or sewn all your grandpa's old handkerchiefs into a quilt. Perhaps you saved up your yogurt containers to use as candle molds or you've turned an old clawfooted bathtub into a strawberry planter. Tell me how you've taken something old and given it new life with a new purpose.

Enter by telling me about your repurpose here in the comments section, or by commenting with a link to a photo or blog entry about your repurpose.

You can enter as many times as you like between now and midnight CST, April 30th. On May 1st, I will announce this month's winner, along with the details of May's contest.

Your entry can be an idea that strikes you this month, or something you did two years ago, so long as it is your own creation.

The winner will be chosen by me (and perhaps a committee of cohorts that may or may not include my mom, husband, neighbor, children and the check out girl at Wal-Mart).

The most creative/useful entry will receive:

Your very own copy of "The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio"
A biggo bar of my all time favorite soap, Pre de Provence's Linden.
A few boxes of the best ever Japanese Curry Packets (Japan's boil in bag version of fast food)
The lovely thrifted red doile in the photo above, a package of genuine Texas Bluebonnet seeds, a jar of Miss Ruby's Ya Ya Peppers (snack food of the gods), an official Junk Gypsy Tape Measure (because every girl needs one!) and whatever other little bits and pieces of Blue Yonderness that find their way into your prize package!

So let 'er rip, gals. How have you given new life to old junk?