Purveyors of the Obvious

simple comforts for the infirmed

// December 7th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

let me see… December… close to ZERO degrees in Colorado for a few days now… cooties are spreading among us… holiday partying is wearing us down… are you feeling 100%? If you are sliding or just want to boost your immunity here are a few of the simple comforts us here at Ossumniss HQ rely on when we are not feeling our best.

#1 good old fashioned rest

sleep

#2 good nutrient-dense food, vitamins if you need to supplement

#3 probiotics, we have a cow share that supplies us with raw milk, consider yogurt or supplements

#4 honey, naturally antiseptic

#4.33 honey with lemon for a bad throat

#4.66 hot toddy if you are just feeling like sh*t (squeeze two lemons, add honey to taste, heat til really hot, pour in mug, add whiskey til it slightly burns your eyeballs when you go in for a sip… vary with spices and liquors… go wild!)

hot_toddy

#5 saline wash (add sea salt and water to gargle for your throat, use this mix in a neti pot if you need it for your sinuses)

#6 elderberry… this is a new one for us and we have been doing elderberry and zinc herbalozenges because we have not hit the cool threshold to make elderberry syrup ourselves with dried elderberries

#7 tea – we darn near live down the street from Celestial Seasoning and they are going to do well this cold & flu season for a reason… tea is comforting and in the right blend it has healing properties. just stay away from the caffeine because that will not help if you are trying to tell the mucus to go bye-bye. you can also bath with some mint and/or eucalyptus blends or just put them in a bowl to breathe the vapors.

teabath

#8 emergen-c… why is this stuff da bomb?!? stay with a flavor you like though. we have too many friends that decided to be adventurous and buy a box of acai berry, that stuff tastes like a$$.

do you have any remedies to add? the more old-timey and accessible the better.

crafty, crafty

// December 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

I have been looking for the fun craftster scene since we moved to Colorado. There are a lot of cool crafty people here who upcycle and create, but I have not found the craftster scene yet. That is until today. I followed the trail from Friday’s re-nest post on 23 handmade craft shows to Hello Crafts post on the shows from last week. Low and behold, Holiday Handmade in Denver, CO. Yeah it was this past weekend, yesterday and Friday to be exact. No problem though, the link took me to Fancy Tiger Crafts and Denver Handmade Alliance. I will be heading into this craft store the next time I am in Denver on a weekend afternoon, I will also be following both online.

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However I do not live in Denver, a little further north. In my hood I love the lab space at Common Threads in Boulder as well as their consignment clothing store.

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Also this past weekend in Longmont was the holiday market the local farmers market puts on at the Boulder County Fairgrounds if you wanted to buy local in person.

If you want to craft and/or upcyle yourself my fave stores are the Salvo on 33rd just north of Arapahoe, the Humane Society Thrift Store on Arapahoe and the Resource Yard on 63rd to find bits and pieces of projects to work on.

the mythos of the holiday hobo sack

// December 6th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

In early December ’06 I was in a car accident that left my back and right hand a little worse for wear. I had planned on sewing a holiday stocking for my fiance but physically could not do it. We had already gone to the fabric store, he picked what we wanted, and it sat folded up, unused. On Christmas Eve I had the brilliant idea to take a chunky stick from the yard and put his presents on the fabric and tie in on the stick. It was all I could do with my body post accident. My fiance, now husband, is an odd duck and absolutely loved it. He grabbed his hobo sack and took a march with it that night. At the time we lived in Miami and had a huge garden and yard so would sleep outside under a crab apple tree on Christmas Eve, he had a lot of room to march hobo style.

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Thus the mythos of the hobo sack was born. We began joking that night that our kids would have hobo sacks for the holidays. We would use it as a teaching tool with them. We would allow them to pick their stick. The ideal hobo sack stick. If you pick a big, sturdy stick it would support a good amount of weight in the sack, but could get too heavy if their march was going to be a long one. They would lose gifts out of the sack along the journey if it was too heavy until it was ideal weight for a good march. If they did too small of a stick their hobo sack would have to be tiny and they would not get as many presents. The feat of selecting the hobo sack stick would be a question of greed vs. comfort vs. sensibility. We would let our kids pick their stick, put an appropriate collection of presents on the fabric and tie it to the stick, then go for our Christmas Eve or Christmas Day march into nature to open the presents. The fabricated complexities of the tradition grew with the amount of champagne and orange juice we drank. WanderingStick

In ’07 I made a small stocking for my fiance to hang under the crab apple tree and he acted like he appreciated it. In ’08 he had become my husband and prior to Christmas admitted he wanted the hobo sack back. On Christmas day there was a big box for him, with a hobo sack on top of it attached to a stick leaning on the side.

The stick is already selected for this year… but as impeding parents we are facing more of a quandry with if we are going to celebrate a sham of Christmas for a non-Christian and a non-practicing Christian and what to do for our kids in the future. If we do any Christmas stuff there will be hobo sacks involved and we will have kids growing up thinking this is typical holiday tradition.

No Shave Movember

// December 4th, 2009 // 7 Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

Movember was started by some wacky Aussies a few years ago after some guys in a pub got to talking about men’s health and moustaches over a few pints. The movement has spread and tonight in Denver Matt Bernier (@mbernier) spearheaded a movement to get the Metal Mustache team to have a great party where it all started… at a pub. The team had raised about $700 before the night started and kept it going through the night with raffles, a silent auction, generous sponsorship from Mike’s Hard Lemonade (who sampled their Hard Cider tonight), and a generous sponsorship from The Rackhouse Pub. The guys on the team were invited to have a barber manscape their scruff and after a contest for best style ensued… for men and women. Kudos to Matt, he put together a great team for the month of Movember and closed our their efforts with a fun celebration to raise money and awareness for men’s health.

Amanda (@amanda5280) and guest (Brian I think??)

Amanda (@amanda5280) and Gabe (@GabeLee)

Ted (@tekee) getting his trim on

A little bromance luv between Matt (@mbernier) and Ted (@tekee) after Ted's shave

PJ (@hookedonwinter) showing off his Inspector Clouseau

Terry (@tcabeen) before the cut

The barber working his magic on Terry (@tcabeen)

Brian Poskin from Ollie's working his magic on Terry (@tcabeen)

Dudes begging Erika (@redheadwriting) to pick their best manscaping

The ladies showing off their grooming to the crowd.

The winners, Erin (@evodonnell) and Ginger (@gpelz), hugging it out

Mimi (@naomimimi) and Patrick (@thegingerbandit) doing what they do when the dj plays Hannah Montana

Mimi (@naomimimi) and Patrick (@thegingerbandit) dancing away to Hannah Montana

Dramatic shot of Terry (@tcabeen) with his new Brandon Flowers' facial hair

holiday parties

// December 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

this post feels late but it is not. it is 12:04 am. we just got home from a first holiday party. gatherings are nice any time of year but holidays just help you let your pretense down a little bit more. how can they not? just look at what happens when bowie drops in on bing crosby.

sadly I do not have a large variety of holiday music, just Christmas music. I do enjoy it though. here are my faves and they will be the silliness you will hear if you are invited over for rum punch, egg nog, or mulled wine.

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kennyanddolly charliebrownXmasCover hollis

adding some color to your life

// December 2nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

It has been a very odd consumer day for me. First I bought this

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then a little while later I bought this

I have Steel Impressions, not this Wildflower palette

You should know that I am not the best artist but I can paint way better than I can put on make up! Tonight I have done two watercolor paintings and practiced two versions of the elusive “smokey” eye. I looked like Ursala from the Little Mermaid with the first attempt… it was that bad! However it is fun, and putting a little color in your life is all about fun.

December is here! (remembering our fave trip of ’09)

// December 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

Perhaps I was harsh with the STFU December, but I was honest. If you cannot add value then shut it.

At Ossumniss we are not going to shut it. For the month of December we are going to challenge ourselves to a NABLOWRIMO-style challenge and post all 31 days. We will post content that hopefully adds value to your day.

This challenge will be easy. Gwen Bell has also challenged her social media friends to do a “best of” month and has 31 blog post prompts listed on her site. We will do daily content and if we really like one of her prompts or get stuck for an idea of our own we will use one of hers. Today is a prompt of hers that I really like… WHAT WAS YOUR BEST TRIP OF ’09?

This is hands down an easy response, our two-week road trip in Sept/Oct from Colorado to California to Arizona over to New Mexico and back to Colorado. I did a photo blog chronicling some of what we experienced and suppose this is a good forum to say why. Sadly I cannot give all the whys of how auspicious this journey was, but most of them.

First off the main purpose of the trip was to 1) attend teachings with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama 2) spend time with my best friend and her young daughter and 3) have some fun with my husband away from the mundane.

singing bowl I picked up at the teachings

The teachings were powerful and unexpected. I have attended several public speaking engagements with HHDL before but not teachings. I was surprised that we did initiations and felt like I was in a right place with my spiritual practice to partake. We did the Amitabha Initiation, the Medicine Budhha Initiation, and I took layman vows while a few in attendance chose to take the Bodhisatva vows. I know I am nowhere as cool as those who took the Bodhisatva vows but was overcome with joy that they were in the right place to take that step and that I was present to witness. The overall experience put me at ease with the world and my place in it.

Husband playing with our #1 niece

Being back in Los Angeles was nice for a few days. That is my hometown. My husband and I used the time away from the teachings to visit my old haunts, eat good food, and play at the beach. I can make anyone love L. A. because there is so much love and diversity in that city. You just need to know where to look. We only stayed a couple of days as to not infringe on my best friend’s Yom Kippur observance… so we headed south to the beaches near San Diego. That was fun for a short time but we were aching to move on and it wasn’t all that warm at the beach.

hubby finishing meditation at Buddha with stupa behind him

We headed on over to camp just north of Sedona, AZ in the canyon. We were lucky and given a nice campsite along Oak Creek the first night for free. I had been to Sedona before but had never visited the stupa there. It is not the easiest thing to find but when we did we could hardly contain ourselves… it was an Amitabha stupa. Amitabha, just like the first initiation we took with HHDL. Woah! We visited at sunset one day and sunrise the next. Making offerings and meditation there were also very nice. Another highlight of Sedona was Slide Rock park, I had only been in the summer months and the water was in the 60s but I spent more time in it that I did at the beach. It was cold but so much fun.

only balloons we saw at festival were demo helium ones that wanted to fly away

After Sedona we made our way out to New Mexico and stayed in the mountains just east of the city. In town the balloon festival was just starting and all kinds of stuff was going on. We got to meet the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII, go to a bunch of garage sales, hit up Trader Joe’s, and go to the balloon festival for the evening glow. Unfortunately it was too windy so no balloons launched and we were tired… so we drove through the night to make it home. And rested on that last day.

The best part of the trip is a project us here at Ossumniss began working on while on the road. We need a few more things to develop but like our title states… it will be OSSUM (AWESOME). We’ll look to the start of the new year to announce it.

One other amazing part of the trip, the food. We came back thinner and stronger than we left. We ate simply and well. A lot of fresh produce. We went to Trader Joe’s and bought pre-cooked grain in a bag and pre-cooked legumes in a bag and would put them on the car dash to heat up. They made great lunches and dinners with a touch of cilantro and lime. I will list three great restaurants along the way that can satisfy the most gourmand vegans and provided some great desserts.

1. Mani’s Bakery (Los Angeles) on Fairfax between Wilshire and 3rd

2. D’Lish Very Vegetarian (Sedona) on Hwy 89A

3. Annapurna World Vegetarian Cafe (Alburqueque) near the university… they also have a Aryuvedic cooking school here

Overall it was a great trip that I think will impact us for the rest of our lives. Between spirituality and the developing project coming out of it we will fondly look on these pictures with huge smiles.

STFU December

// November 28th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

teepee-and-northern-lights In the United States we celebrated Thanksgiving this week. The day means different things to different people. For some it is a day that marks the genocide of the indigenous people of our country. For others it is a day to hang our heads for all the turkeys that will be sacrificed to the altar of gluttony. Personally I love the holiday to celebrate the bounty of food we have, how easy our lives are that we get to partake in a feast, and by surrounding ourselves with those we care for when we share the feast. In short it is a day to be grateful for what we have and give thanks.

Even in this definition there are issues. It seems mostly with family. I love the phrase “If you think you have attained enlightenment spend a week with your family.” It is so true. I don’t spend the holidays with my family. I have made an effort to avoid them on major holidays since I was a young teenager. Now that I am married and my husband knows how trifling and unsupportive my family can be he helps me make sure we keep them at bay. The only exception so far is my dad, this was his 3rd Thanksgiving with us. My husband also seems to avoid his family on the holidays (though not for the same reasons). Our results are usually great days with our friends, our tribe.

Leading up to Thanksgiving my twitter stream was packed with people either complaining or giving thanks for the holiday for personal or political reasons. On Thanksgiving there were mostly tones of gratitude. Then come Black Friday it seemed to revert to a lot of political and personal complaining. This instant reversion made me a bit sad.

You see I love the holiday season. I am a sucker and believe in goodwill to all men. I do not celebrate Christmas but I love how many Christians act warm leading up to Christmas. There are a lot of cool holidays in December that bring a sense of joy to their celebrants. I like to be idealistic and spread that sense of joy from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day. These holidays are merely arbitrary dates to act joyful, however they are significant to people on the specified days.

So while this comes off as backhanded whining about other peoples’ whining I challenge myself and you to STFU this month. If Thanksgiving is stressful for you, then the holidays in December can also be stressful. They are only that way because we make them so. If it is family then work on your issues if you can. In some cases like mine you cannot so make the choice to add value to your family celebrations or find alternative plans if that will make you happier. If you are sad you cannot be around your family then surround yourself with a good tribe, you can count on your community if you are a good friend to them. If it is the cost of presents, then only spend in your budget or make gifts. Do not put yourself in situations to stress yourself out if you can avoid it. Try to keep the momentum you had on turkey day whether you ate poultry or nut loaf… be grateful and express it.

Keep the gratitude going this Thanksgiving weekend. Try to keep it going in December and beyond. If that is too hard then just STFU for December if you cannot add value to whatever you are doing with positive thoughts and actions.

Denver Art Museum – First Saturday

// November 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized // Uncategorized

We at OSSUMNISS took advantage of the cultural offerings in Denver this past Saturday. It was First Saturday and the Denver Art Museum (DAM) was open to visitors gratis from 10 am – 5 pm. It was also Celebrate Denver Arts Week thus 10 museums were open for free from 5 pm – 10 pm (including DAM). If you don’t go on a free day admission is only $10 for CO Residents and yearly membership for families is $70.

FYI Denver is great with cultural affairs opportunities even if you don’t have much cash. The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District works to offer free and severely discounted opportunities to residents. Get to know their website and check their calendar. Also the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs has a 2-for-1 ticket program for a myriad of events, see their weekly updates.

Anyway, DAM was fun. We arrived to find a bunch of kids climbing all over a a broom and dustpan sculpture they were not supposed to climb. Obviously how can one resist? It looks like you are supposed to be on it.

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