How to MakeThe Coolest Wool Boots Ever, Easily

I never ever can get shoes that fit me right, 

that feel good..

and look cool.

 Fact is I don't think they make cool shoes for guys.

 We know some folks who make felt shoes,

 but they are just way beyond our budget,

 and who knows how well they'll fit

 and how comfortable they will be. 

 So I decided I'd figure out how to make my own pair of shoes.

  So one night I was laying

 there in the middle of the Night

 and an inspiration dawned upon me...

Hallelujah!!

It's really easy,

 so I wanted to share it with folks here.

First I got an old wool sweater

 from the Thrift store..

Cut off the sleves,

 and checked to see how it fit on my foot.

Nice and snug.

Then I had some foam I got for free at a garage sale and I cut it into two pieces with my band saw.. (scissors would work.)

One piece for the foot,

and one for my calf.   

 

 Here you see a Pic of the foam alongside one of the sleeves

 Then I cut a piece out of the top so I could fold it up without a bunch of excess..

 Here it is folded up

See it already kinda looks like a boot.

 Then I needle felted it up and in place...

Made em nice and thick,

Then put em in a pillow case and in the washing machine with some Dr. Bronners soap.

I set the timer for 5 minutes so they wouldn't shrink into baby booties.

I almost left em in too long,

 but I put em on my feet while still wet
With three thick pairs of socks, just to make sure they'd shrink to fit...
 

 and they formed perfectly to my feet.

I had to wear em wet for a long time, I wanted to be sure they'd mold to my feet.

They did, like a snug glove.

  Then it was just a matter of a bunch of needle felting to thicken it up and put a design on it.

I worked a lot on the soles to make them fit my arches and feel good when walking with em.

 You can see em here with my sandals made by our friend Jolaine strapped on for outside wear.

 Here they are without the sandals.

 I painted the bottoms with Latex rubber. I had some laying around... I put on three thick coats and kind of pulled it up to make knobby treads.  This way I can wear them around the house without the bottoms wearing out

 They are so comfortable and totally warm out in the snow...

Now you can make your own.... See how easy?

Magical Scents

A long time ago in a place far far away (Stanford California) I came across a store selling nothing but essential oils. This was in the days of my maniacal meditating..he he. And I discovered something back then about scents. It was that different scents were attuned to different centers in the body. Some were attuned to the Heart, some to the Third eye...some were very grounding, and others very uplifting. I also discovered that most "manly" scents tended to be very grounding, and most feminine scents were more attuned to centers upwards from the Heart. In fact you could say that there are distinctly Male and Female scents.... and of course this is culturally driven and quite limiting to the Spirit. As you all know little girls must grow up to have babies and stay home taking care of them, and little boys must grow up to go to work, and War. And most available scents for men and women were designed to keep them firmly in their little limiting boxes. 

Well I decided that I wanted scents that would allow a man and woman escape from the limited box defined by a limited culture. I wanted a scent that would awaken all the centers in men and women. That would be grounding for a woman while still letting her "smell womanly". And that would allow a man to open his heart and mind, and still smell manly.
The idea is to let males touch their feminine side, and females touch their masculine side....allowing them to be more balanced humans.
This blend was made with the Female in mind. It is sweet and beautiful.... yet strong and grounded. Males can certainly wear this, especially ones who are not afraid to express their feminine side. I love this mix personally, but am going to make one more.... for the men out there seeking balance in this narrowly defined culture. 

See ,"Utopian Daydream" here in our Wooly Moss Roots Shop 

Buttons, buttons, buttons buttons

I've been a busy boy..

Buttons

Recycled woods

Black

Yellow

Brown

White

Purple

Multi Colored

All Natural Color of the woods

Sassafras, 

Maple

Myrtle

Ebony

cocobolo

Western Red Cedar

Cedar from our Back Yard

Flowering Plum from the front yard

Yew wood

Buckthorn

Holly

New Stuff and Super Get the Transmission fixed on our Truck SALE

A New Heartfull Blessing Magnet carved in a Huckleberry Root Burl

You gotta check out this spoon

See it here Click here for the adventure of a Lifetime

BIG SALE...Get those Christmas Gifts now

So we're going to have a Big Sale. 20% off everything. ( Through Wednesday Night).  Go to our store here: Our Magical Little Shoppe, and use the coupon code NEWTRANNY at checkout ..
  We've been basically car less for a couple of weeks. It broke down the week before last and it took the mechanic a week to figure out the problem was in the computer, so we had to get a new one (used).   YAY ! We got our car back and went to Eugene the next day, all out of groceries and really important things like toilet paper.  So we went over and stocked up on meat for the month and some wonderful toilet paper.  I've been thinking if society falls all around us, if the banks go under and our government for the rich as paid for by the poor goes under, and the Marketplace is wasted because of rampant inflation.... I'd be just fine with that.   But I've really grown to ..... relish .... toilet paper, that's the one thing I'd miss the most.
Well anyway so we were coming home the back way, on 29th I think, it was getting dark and cold....we were going up a hill and..... the car quit going.  The engine was fine....the transmission was toast.    Luckily the day before we had bought one of those $7.50 cell phones so we could call a tow truck.   $159.00 dollars deeper in the hole and we were happily home.   It was Friday night so on Monday we had it towed to the mechanic in Florence.  On Thursday he finally tells us it's beyond him to fix, and will cost a bundle.   So after a lot of shopping around and considering options it's headed back to Springfield today...another $150. for towing and up to $2000 for the rebuilding of the Transmission.   Better than the deal in Florence which was $4000.   So it looks like the car we paid 4000 for, with a $500. warranty that they didn't honor a couple weeks later when the engine blew up, is becoming our 10,000 dollar $500 dollar piece of...... metal and rubber and plastic.   
So, in hopes of bailing it out of the shop later next week we decided it'd be a good time for a sale.
Lots of buttons , here's a few examples.

Dogwood, that is the actual color

Deer Horn

Maple Burl

Trees carved in Yew Wood

Recycled Cocobolo

Sassafras

Madrone

This is holly that I skinned the bark off of when it was green, making it ivory white

This is a darker Holly that I didn't de bark

We also have tons of the Magnetic Heartfull Reminders to put on Fridges etc.  Like these:

Carved in then Painter Birdseye Maple Burl

Carved in and then painted Juniper wood

Lots of different earrings

Soon we hope to be introducing a new item we grew this year for the folks out there that have really cool cats that they love.   It's called "Kitty Bud"   It's the flowers of the catnip plant which our cats loved a lot more than the leaves.  Get your cats high this Christmas.   I smoked some myself to see what would happen (after researching it on the internet)...and it made me pretty mellow.

And just to share, here's a pick of my Beautiful Wonderful daughter, my amazingly sweet and dear son....and some old guy who got in the picture..... kinda looks like Santa Claus.

So to get into this wonderful Sale go to our website Our Store (click this link)
AND AT CHECKOUT Put in the code Newtranny and save a whopping 20% off our already insanely low prices....

Into the Heart...Tree of Life and Love

I've had a demon on my back for quite a few days....built in my past upon who knows what judgments... We're calling it the Flu for now as that is how it manifests. So I haven't really accomplished much in the creativity Dept.  But today I had the energy to string a really cool necklace I carved a while back...and got it posted:

The piece of wood I carved this in is a knot from a Juniper tree. It's also one of my favorite smelling woods. When I was younger I had an incense made in Tibet that I'm sure was made from this wood. (soon I hope to be offering incense made from this, on our store...I'm working at perfecting that now). The smell gets me high. I'm so in love with it that I'm building a meditation hut out back with four huge pillars of it, so I can meditate with this smell surrounding me. So I carved it in this knot, which sure has a lot of rings, must have been an old tree. It comes from East of here in Oregon. In the roots of this Mighty Old Tree I carved a Love Knot. I strung it on horn, wood and a Picture Jasper. It's about 1 1/4 by 2 inches and the necklace is about 20 in. long.
You can see it here on our store

Magical Healing Salve

So here is the first of the three healing salves we're going to be offering:
OUCH !! Do you have a cut, nick, sore, abrasion, diaper rash, chapped lips, or burn. Well this Magical Healing salve is just the stuff to take care of it. It has healing properties that you will have to experience to believe.
I could go on and on about the ingredients, most of which we grow here. Comfrey for one I have used in some critical situations on myself, once when I tore my arm open, and once when I cracked open my scalp.... It contains a substance that is classified as a cell proliferant...basically it really speeds up the regeneration of cells. When I cracked open my head,, not being one to go to Doctors, I had my wife tie the hairs on each side of the wound together...like stitches, holding it together...then put on a poultice of comfrey...it healed up in a couple of days, when I tore my arm open (I had a hard core job in those days, always gettin injured)...anyway if you pound the stem it is like strings and gelatin...the strings stitch it together, and the gel seals and heals it really quickly (after stopping the bleeding with some alum). The Indians called it "Knitbone" and used it for mending broken bones.
Self Heal and Plantain are both well known for their healing properties and over the years I sort of made it so our lawn was about 70% these, and 30% grass, which is cool because they tolerate drought and our clay soil better than than grass, and we always have healing herbs for bites or cuts right at our fingertips.And the Self Heal flowers look like small lavender flowers all over the lawn. Calendula is also an amazing healing herb/flower and it's been said that it kills tetanus.... I have friends who swear by it, and not believing in vaccines use it when they or their children get puncture wounds...as do I . Haven't gotten tetanus yet. St Johnswort isn't just good for Depression, it is also an amazing topical healing herb, and propolis is an antibacterial "bee glue" that is amazing. Before antibiotics were used Silver was the medicine of choice for really really bad burns, in fact burn victims were put in tubs of silver water. We make our own and it's way more potent than any you can buy. Tea Tree oil is also quite miraculous in it's healing and antiseptic properties and I put LOTS in this. The base is a nice organic coconut oil which soothes the skin and makes it easier to soak in, mixed just right with bees wax so that it has just the right consistency. We added some Lavender essential oil, and mixed with the tea tree oil and propolis which has an amazing smell....the combination of the 3 smells is wonderful. The salve is a beautiful deep green from the herbs. Added to that is the Magic of a Healing Intention filled with Love.

You can buy enough to last years for just a few dollars here on our store:
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