Musings, Changes and Things to Come!

Ziggy's Reciprical Roof

Welcome to the new and improved Ecovillage Musings! The focus has now officially changed - from my life and adventures launching a green business here at Dancing Rabbit, to a more general Dancing Rabbit informational site. Click here to view my new blog, A Passion for Green Business.

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting Brian's (aka Ziggy's) dad who is visiting from New Jersey. I now understand Brian's sunny disposition - his dad is a delight! Check out Ziggy's Year of Mud, where he shares his adventures of building a cob house.

That's it for today - I'm way behind in EVERYTHING! More tomorrow!

Midnight Ramblings, in spite of the cat...

Oh sure, he looks innocent enough...

Dear Friends,

It's midnight, and I tried to sleep. Oh, how I tried. But my brain was whirring, churning, spinning so fast that I had no other option but to climb out of bed, put on Kurt's old blue bathrobe, come down to the kitchen where my computer is sitting on the table and pour myself a bowl of Cheerios (just because I live at an Ecovillage doesn't mean that I always do what is best for me!). So here I sit, brainstorming the next steps in my business, plotting tomorrow's photo shoot, and attempting to think of fabulous, verging-on-genius ideas for The Green Mom's Carnival in which the wise and generous Karen Hanrahan has invited me to participate. But the cat (Fionn McCool) is taking turns running up and down the stairs at top speed and clawing at the tablecloth so that the glass water pitcher inches ever closer to the edge of the table ("Mom! Pay attention to ME!!!) while the very patient but not-a-cat-fan dog, Baloo, keeps coming over to let me know just how annoying the cat is. So I am doing my best, but if this is less than coherent, it's all the cat's fault.

Baloo, who in spite of his obsessive compulsive behavior regarding throw toys, is a fine dog...

OMG. Now the cat has rolled himself up, enchilada style, in the throw rug in the living room. Things were much calmer before I turned on the light...

But anyway, it has been an amazing week. Actually, it was last week that was amazing - I'm just now recovering from recovering from it!

The absolute tip top highlight was the opportunity to be on a panel at the West Suburban Women Entrepreneur's (WSWE) Sixth Anniversary Event. Joining me on the panel were the irrepressible and hilarious Jodi Murphy of Murco Recycling Enterprises, and the absolutely delightful Tracey Robertson of Share Wear in Chicago. Wrangling, er, moderating the conversation was the warm and gracious Jenniffer Weigel, who managed to be both down-to-earth and totally "woo woo" at the same time - what stories she had! We spent an hour and a half talking about our businesses - what inspires us, how we came to do what we do, appreciating our bodies, how we deal with the current economic downturn, and much, much more. What pleased me the most was that the four of us were able to have breakfast together in a private dining room before the event, so that we could get to know one another better before being "on stage." As we talked and shared our ideas, we realized that we all shared a belief in gratitude and abundance. Thinking good things (and doing the work) really can make good things happen. It sounds very Pollyanna-ish, but I know from my own experience that when I follow my heart, amazing things happen, doors open, and the right people appear right out of the blue. When I try to force things, to do what I think I should instead of what I feel I should - well, the results just aren't the same.

It was wonderful to be in a room full of 190 business women (and five men), and feel the support and encouragement from each and every one of them. I was so happy to see Maria Moran of Green Home Experts again (if anyone needs information or help with green building or rennovation, Maria is your girl - she's not only creative and knowledgable, but impeccably honest), Falise of 24/8 Book Club (who confessed to eating Cocoa Krispies, giving me the courage to confess my own sugar ceral jones...), Denise of So Tell Me, creator of So Tell Me Medical Organizers (which I can't wait to carry - oh, to have had these when my parents were ill), the aforementioned Karen Hanrahan, and the Revolutionary Muses, Joanne Stone-Geier and Sue Reardon.

I love being in business, at least the way I am choosing to run my business. And the women I am meeting continue to inspire me to do exactly what I have set out to do - create a community-centered, successful, sustainable, ethical, truly green business.

And speaking of how I choose to run my business, this blog has turned in a direction that was unintended. And so I am going to go with the flow (see 4th paragraph, above) and make a change. This blog, Ecovillage Musings, will morph into an unofficial blog for Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. As I travel and talk about my home and where the Milkweed Mercantile is located, I am told again and again that the DR website is huge and almost incomprehensible. So I will present our little Ecovillage in managable bites, here, with a name that suits it's purpose.

My business and personal blog, will be new. It is almost ready to go, and as soon as I figure out all of the settings, I will launch it, hopefully by tomorrow.


So that's it for tonight. If I can't sleep now, I'll pull out the latest Henning Mankell book - I'm loving his Kurt Wallender series. It is set in Sweden, and so I make up ways to pronounce the names. They are most likely VERY wrong, but it sure is amusing!

more tomorrow!

Good news, holiday plans and getting too big for my britches!

OK. After ten minutes of trying, I'm CLEARLY not bright enough to embed a video for you to watch here. But I DO know how to LINK something, so click here to view a life-changing video, or at least a brief snippet of humor and truth.

I'm also trying to figure out Twitter both the hows and the whys. Do people REALLY have spare time to do this all day? It's a puzzlement. Maybe it's because they're at desk jobs with the computer, cell phone and blackberry in hand?

However, there IS some good news in amongst the stock market crashes and scary VP announcements. We heard from our friends Rick and Jaime in San Diego that they got married in July. Hooray!

I've been "shopping" for the Mercantile's Holiday selection and having a blast. Take a look at some of these fabulous things (included are organic Blueberry Lavender preserves, pendants made from scrabble tiles, organic baby rattles, playground scavenger hunt, and organic fair trade chocolate "puddles":

We should have them all up online by the beginning of next week.

Tomorrow Kurt and I are off to LaGrange, IL for the West Suburban Women Entrepreneur's Anniversary Event: “The Face of the Woman Entrepreneur", featuring a distinguished panel of women entrepreneurs moderated by Emmy-winning broadcaster Jenniffer Weigel.

Guess who is one of the distinguished panelists? Yup. Better brush my teeth!

Ramping up for Sarah's big evening:

For the teetotallers (including moi): Bingo
For the drinkers from MIT's The Tech:

Red Team Rules

• Every time Palin cites Alaska’s proximity to Russia as “foreign policy experience”: Take a shot of vodka
• When Palin claims she said “Thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere: Demand a new drink from your hosts, say “thanks but no thanks,” and then when no one’s looking, take it anyway, then claim you never wanted it.
• When Palin recounts putting the governor’s jet on eBay: Auction off a beer to your friends
• When Palin insists that governing a small town in Alaska is in fact experience: Give your friend a shot glass of beer when he/she asks for a pint and insist it’s the same thing.
• When Palin points out that Biden thought Obama was too inexperienced for the job: Finish your drink and say, “Oh Snap!” If you’re a democrat, follow this by crying.
• When Palin claims that Washington’s problems can be solved by small town know how and common sense: Drink a Labatt Blue as you read up on how to become a Canadian citizen.
• When Palin talks about being the most popular governor in the country: Go to a room by yourself, realize you’re the most popular person in the room, then finish your drink.

The Sarah Palin checklist:
If she mentions all of the following, finish your drinks: Bush Doctrine, Snow Machine, Moose, Lipstick, Hockey Mom, Family Values

Blue Team Rules

• For every mention of Scranton, Pennsylvania: Take a sip.
• When Biden begins the “I take the train home everyday story” being drinking. Don’t stop ’till he finishes.
• When Biden questions Palin’s inexperience: Drink something you’ve never had before
• When Biden makes an obvious gaffe: Spill your neighbor’s drink
• When Biden uses X words when Y will do: Drink X-Y seconds
• When Biden patronizes or self identifies with the working class: Down some brew (Bonus points if you use Miller Highlife)
• When Biden lambastes Washington Insiders: Make a toast to his 35 years of experience in the United States Senate

The Joe Biden checklist:

If he mentions all of the following, finish your drinks: Blue Collar, Golden Parachute, Little Guy, Washington Insider, Working Class, Clean

Enjoy!

...In which our hero finally gets a nap

Hello friends.

Ideablob is OVER! Yay! I cannot believe just how relieved and happy I am to be done with it! We still don't know who the winner is - it will be announced, as the Ideablob folks so succinctly put it in their email to me at 12:01 a.m. this morning, "sometime soon." I suspect that we'll be a very close second, which of course gets nothing except a tremendous outpouring of support and encouragement from a community of old and new friends, lots of fantastic attention focused on the good things that are happening here at Dancing Rabbit, and, um, fewer taxes.

I was appalled by how competitive I really am, and buoyed by how much I enjoyed reaching out, meeting new people, learning new technologies (let's be clear: I'm learning, NOT mastering!), brainstorming possibilities, and practiced articulating just what it is we're trying to do. I am finding launching a business to be one of the most creative things I have ever done - and I've had a pretty creative life!

Today I found this gem in Dani Norden's "One person can't feel that much at once! They'd explode!" blog:
"...And talking to my chiropractor about it (who's a holistic kinda gal), she mentioned that in times like this, you have a choice on how you exist in the universe. You're either a citizen of your country, a citizen of the world, a citizen of your family, or a citizen of yourself. And sometimes, when being a citizen of the world/country becomes so exhausting that it prevents you from functioning in other capacities, it's time to scale back a bit. Get back into yourself for a while."
She is a designer and visionary - check her out!

That's it for now. Time to make some hot pepper relish, go to the vet's to get Baloo some more thyroid pills, take a nap, clear a path through what used to be our bedroom but is now the Mercantile storage area, write over-due condolence cards...hmmmm, I'm a bit behind!

The Last 24 hours of Ideablob (and aren't we all glad!)

Hi everyone. We're nearing the end of the Ideablob contest. We've had an amazing day - over 260 votes! Wow. I am neck-deep in gratitude, and bubbling over with awe.

If only it were enough! Sheesh, Project H Design is simply impossible to beat, or at least they seem to be. They have a HUGE network, hundreds of university affiliations, and more. I spent yesterday emailing cohousing groups, ecovillages, strawbale building groups, renewable energy groups, EVERYONE I could think of. And the votes have poured in. But Project H keeps coming, like Rommel driving deep into Egypt (to misquote Richard Brautigan), plowing over every lovely idea in its path.

For those of you just tuning in, please help our business, the Milkweed Mercantile, win a $20,000 cash award. Go to Ideablob.com, register, go to your email to confirm your registration, and then vote for "Strawbale off-grid business." We would really appreciate it! THEN, please go to your social networking networks, and network! I am so new at all of this! Twitter, Stumble, trip and fall! (it is really fun, though, "meeting" so many people that I never even knew existed!)

For more on our business, click here.

To watch a short video about the Mercantile, click here.

For photos of the Mercantile in progress, click here.

For more on Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, click here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to come here and read this. And thank you again for voting for us (if you do). We look forward to meeting you in person someday here at the Mercantile!

An amazing year continues...

I can't believe how much I have learned in the past year. I feel like my brain is on hyper-drive. At the risk of being horribly, miserably trite and filled with cliches, life lately feels like peeling a huge, not-so-stinky onion - the more I peel the more that I find is there. And while I might cry a little, all in all it is rich and delicious.

This Ideablob contest is just the latest in a long line of learning experiences. We still have 48 hours until the contest is over. We have an email going out to the March Hare mailing list, an interview on Ecosalon.com, a Milkweed Mercantile Autumnal Equinox newsletter, a posting on the PAII forum, and an email to our personal mailing lists. And while I haven't completely given up, I suspect that the fat lady is about to sing and that we will lose spectacularly. But what I keep coming back to is this: is it really losing if over 400 wonderful people took time out of their lives and registered on a website that was sure to send them annoying emails in the future, and voted for us so that we could get a big pile of cash? Nope. It feels like winning, big time.

Helping me to wrangle all of this rampaging emotion into perspective is something I found on the blog of our friends over at the Permaculture Activist . It is the Incomplete Manifesto written by designer Bruce Mau . It is a wonderful, meaty, brain-expoloding conglomeration of ideas that I can hardly wait to get back to. Ooooh! Here goes. I expect I'll be commenting on this for days to come. And thanks for your support - whatever happens, we feel held in the loving, supportive embrace of friends like you.