As it’s Thanksgiving my whole family’s in town and we went to MoMA yesterday to check out the Tim Burton exhibit as well as the Bauhaus one — per usual though I stuck my head into the room of cool design stuff and I’m very glad I did as I came upon this little mini-felt home by Hill Jephson Robb.
He made it for his 7 month old niece after his sister died to emulate the womb and I think it probabl does a fair job. It’s felted wool and 1.4m x 1.4mx 1.2m. It’s was awesome!
Today over at Funtasticus they posted a slew of knitted bodysuits…seriously. It inspired me to post because I think of the yurt as a woolly alternative to literally knitting or crocheting yourself into a human shaped suit!
I mean, this guy does look quite warm but not quite as mobile as he could be.
You can’t help but laugh to see these guys in their suits — they must be so snuggly but I still think a yurt might be more fun!
Awesome job everyone — we were just pushed over the 40% mark for yurt fundraising at Kickstarter! I’m so humbled by everyone’s generosity and the outpouring of support by total strangers too — it’s AMAZING!
HUGE blue ribbon to everyone who has pledged their support and if you’re waiting for the right time — now could be it! Thanks so much for spreading the yurt around to your friends too — it means the world to me!
It’s Friday evening, the fundraising has hit 35% and it’s Halloween tomorrow — how does the day get better? The answer is with a peaceful photo of sheep on the water from Swans Island.
I got some scary news on the wool we have up in NH today — the mice have found it and since it’s so cold up there already they’re making themselves right at home — very soon I’ll be cleaning it out though and getting it to the mill so be warned, Mice! Your days of sleeping in my wool are almost over! Whenever the mice start to stress me out I just look at the photo and everything’s okay again.
Today I’ve been getting a lot of yurt love, largely driven from a great write up on the project over at The Daily Green! As a way of keeping my karma in check I wanted to post about Heifer International, which, if yurt’s aren’t your donation of choice, allows you to “gift” animals to people in need — including sheep!
As I’m working from Boston this week, my mom has been buzzing about doing great things for the yurt (I’m fairly certain she does this when I’m not here as she is basically the Yurt Whisperer). When I got home from a conference this afternoon she handed me the Heifer International catalog which states, “Warm in winter, cool in summer, waterproof and durable — wool is a valuable product that struggling families can use for clothing or sell for extra income…All over the world, Heifer partners are raising sheep to advance the cause against hunger and poverty.” For $120 you can give the gift of a sheep to someone who can care for it and benefit from it for years to come!
As many of you are aware, this past Saturday was the International Day of Climate Action organized by the group 350.org. I’ve been familiar with the group for a little while as a friend of mine from high school, who lives in San Francisco, is involved as an organizer there and his Facebook keeps me informed!
Saturday they posted photos that flooded in from around the world of people holding up 350 signs — this one came in from the town of Bulam in Mongolia — they tied the 350 movement to their yurts, literally! Congrats to the 350 crew!
And yurts too I should say! I feel like there’s a song in there somewhere…anyways, since the launch of this project I’ve been getting sent photos from friends and strangers around the world of awesome sheep and yurts that I wanted to share!
The above is from Mt. Vernon — they’re George Washington’s sheep!
And then they promptly ran away from my friend Courtney!
The above is a yurt from the Dutchess County Wool and Sheep Festival from Molly Made!
One of my clients sent me this phone pic from his business trip to Australia — look at that beautiful bushy merino! HUGE! Thanks everyone — keep them coming!!!
…but keep the old! That was the favorite saying at my elementary school in Back Bay, The Learning Project. From there I went to BB&N and both schools have been so supportive of the yurt I had to post a special thanks!
BB&N has posted the Yurt in their Alumni News section — woohoo! Hopefully some of my old school mates will get on board!
The LP not only Facebook’ed and Twitter’ed the yurt project but my elementary school principal, Michael McCord also donated to the cause on Kickstarter!
It makes me realize that the network I’ve built up over time is so amazingly supportive even 13 years later for the LP! What a great way to continue their original beliefs of community and education and teamwork! Thanks everyone!
This weekend in New York City was freezing and rainy! I had old study abroad friends staying with me from DC so we were able to stay warm in my little apartment but outside and at Crafts in Chelsea all I could think about was WOOL!
The picture above is from New Hampshire of the wool again — it just looked so Fall-y with the bush turning colors in the background — I had to share!
I’m so thrilled to report that with everyone’s extreme generosity we’ve already raised over $1,100 for the yurt! This puts us at just over 20% funded on Kickstarter — if we keep this up we’ll be able to raise more than enough and the yurt will be even more awesome than I imagined!
So team, BIG gold star — please please continue to spread the yurt love!
