Lifeforce

The other day, when I was dropping Eamon off at school, I noticed these three round holes in the middle of the white lines of the road which runs in front of his school. Rte 1. gets lots of traffic. And these lines must get run over hundreds, if not thousands, of times a day. But inside each of the three little round holes in the pavement was a little cup of dirt, and growing in each little cup of dirt was a tiny green plant, less than an inch high. Just small enough so that when a car tire runs over the hole, the plant is protected in its little cup in the pavement. Amazing.

Thriftstore Score: Globe

One of this week's Thriftstore Scores is this "really old" globe. I wish I knew how old it is, alas it has a copyright, but no date. I'm sure after some research and several hours of squinting at countries that no longer exist, Chris and I will be able to figure out at least a rough estimate as to when this li'l sweetie was made. In the meantime, I will enjoy her for her loveliness. The yellows of the continents and the ocean's blues are especially rich in tone. And just look at that sweet but sturdy metal base (clearly this baby is old). But what I love best are the adorable, almost "cartoony", mid-century looking graphics of flying fish, penguins, aeroplanes, and ships dotting the surface, conjuring up visions of steamer trunks with big leather belts and shiny locks for--not trips, but--voyages. This is not merely a circular map to help you orient yourself in the world, but rather, a lusciously romantic object to help fancy-up your dreams.

Art Star Craft Bazaar

Gearing up for the Art Star Craft Bazaar show in Philly next month. Here's the yak:

The Art Star Craft Bazaar is an outdoor retail art/craft show that is juried by Philadelphia’s Art Star Gallery & Boutique. Over 100 local & national artists have been chosen to set up shop & sell their wares along the beautiful waterfront @ Penn’s Landing. Shoppers can expect high quality handmade goods that reflect the unique & often quirky aesthetic of Art Star, set against the backdrop of the sparkling Delaware river. Art Star has hand selected a diverse collection of artists that create anything & everything, including housewares, paper goods, dolls, prints, ceramics, clothing, accessories, paintings/drawings, sculpture, and many other one-of-a-kind curiosities. All items have been handmade from a variety of mediums that include fabric, clay, glass, wood, paper & much more

It's my first show in Philly and my first two-day show of 2010. I don't normally do a lot of Spring/Summer shows (due to the fact that I work primarily in wool and cashmere), but this one was recommended to by by a friend and it looked so intriguing that I thought I'd just go for it and see what happens. Apparently there were hundreds of applicants vying for the 125 slots in the show. I'm excited I was chosen to be amongst what looks like an awesome group of indie crafsters. The location of Penn's Landing seems like a beautiful place to spend a couple of days, so I'm gearing up production, making plans to hit the road (and praying for sunshine and good weather). If you live anywhere near Philly, stop by and say Hello!

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, May 15th from 11-6pm & Sunday, May 16th from 11-6pm

Where: Philadelphia, PA @ Penn's Landing Great Plaza - on Columbus Boulevard between Walnut Street and Chestnut Street (click here for directions)

If you live anywhere near Philly, stop by and say Hello!

The King and Queen of Easter Fabulous!

Sunday, at Dawn B's (Poppi Shop) famous annual Easter Sunday Brunch, we had a fabulous time stuffing ourselves with too much delicious food and champagne (I must have eaten five of those giant chocolate covered strawberries), sitting under the umbrellas in Dawn's back yard, chatting with Dawn's awesome collection of (mostly artists) friends, and enjoying the perfect day.

Allison and her husband Kevin took the prize for Easter Fabulousness.

Sakura: Cherry Blossoms in DC

Well, Friday was the first day I'd had off in many weeks, so I decided to head down to The Mall with my bike. It was such a gorgeous day. What I'd forgotten (don't ask me how) was that it was not only Cherry Blossom time, but Cherry Blossom FESTIVAL time here in DC, which means The Mall was a mob scene. Still beautiful to be sure.

This is my third spring in DC, and I am always awed that the festival planners--who begin planning the festival a year in advance--always manage to get it just right, holding the festival in just those two weeks when the blossoms are at their peak. I took a few pictures (really, you can't help it), because I knew it would only be a few more days until the blossoms were gone. Sure enough, today it will be nearly 90 degrees and the blossoms are "melting" off the trees.

Of course this time of year always inspires a flower-maker like myself. So I'm including a couple of pictures of "blossom" hats I finished today. Enjoy the spring!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

As the mother of a five-year-old boy, I often find myself having conversations with other parents about gender differences. Of course being the liberal-minded people we are, we've all made our attempts to bring our children up as "gender neutral" as possible. But by now we've all pretty much given up on believing we're making any real progress. Just regarding looks alone, my son doesn't seem to have a self-conscious bone in his body. He doesn't care what he's wearing, as long as it keeps him temperature regulated and doesn't itch or annoy him. Sure, he has favorite clothes, a Darth Vadar shirt, a shirt with pool balls or a bowling pin on it, things that remind him of activities he likes. But he's not bothered if he's not wearing these, and surely doesn't know or care about whether his shirt "matches" or coordinates with his pants (all with the knees ripped out), or mismatched socks. He absolutely HATES having his hair brushed and gives no thought to the style or whether it's a mess. He'd be happy to never change his underwear or socks...

You may think this is because (he's a boy, and so) no one ever makes comments about his looks, and so he's never been lead to think his appearance is important, but I assure you this is not the case. He's blonde-haired and blue-eyed and has ALWAYS gotten plenty of "attention" for his (good) looks (don't even get me started with this seemingly universal obsession with the blonde, blue-eyed thing. Suffice it to say, these toe-headed children get more than their fair share of attention simply because of what they were born with. Blondes may not have more fun, but they certainly garner a LOT of attention.).

There have been exactly two occassions when my son dressed himself and asked, "Do I look handsome?" Which floored both my husband and me. But he didn't seem to have any investment in whether it did or not. It seemed more like he was trying to please us by showing that he'd managed to get himself ready, and looking "handsome" meant clean and dressed and ready to go.

From what I can see, none of his self-esteem seems to be tied to his looks or dress.

Oh how I envy him this unselfconsciousness! It is a state that I cannot remember ever having known.

The little girls in his class don't have it so easy. At five they are already keenly aware of their looks and dress. There seems to be a strict and rigid code for what they can wear (established by? and enforced by?). Every mother of a girl I know has mentioned the HOURS they have to spend sometimes getting their daughters dressed and out the door. Hours spent trying on every single thing in their closets before finally finding something "acceptable" to the girl.

And what of the girls who try to step outside the code?

I was standing with one little girl's mother at the playground one day and the mother was telling me that her daughter absolutely refused to wear anything that is not pink or purple. Hoping to expand her daughter's ideas, the mother pointed to her daughter's best friend (whom the girl looked up to) and said, "Look at Jane's outfit, isn't it lovely?" pointing to the adorable forest green outfit Jane was wearing. To which her daughter responded, "Oh Mom, it's so ugly. I feel so bad for Jane. Do you think that I should tell how awful she looks?"

These girls are FIVE!

One day I overheard another five-year-old girl ask her mother if she "looked fat", which of course mortified her mother, who couldn't help but wonder where her daughter was getting this. Not at home. But of course it's not at home. It's all around us. And while my son has the luxury of growing up worrying about whether he's smarter and stronger and faster than everyone else, and "good" looks are just the cream on top, these little girls already give their looks primacy. And why not?

Recently, I saw a video/ad/infomercial/art piece called Beauty Kit by the Parisian digital arts collective, Pleix, featured in Look Pretty! Feel Beautiful! on Worn Fshion Mag's blog.

Created in 2001...the video below shows a series of four imagined “Beauty Kits for Little Girls” containing DIY beauty treatments. But rather than the customary cheap-makeup-and-nail-polish combos, these kits promise breast implants, liposuction, rhinoplasty, and cosmetic dental surgery.

Part kitschy vintage ad, part modern infomercial, the piece takes you through step-by-step guides, juxtaposing playful music, simple images and rudimentary drawings with creepy flashes of bloody scalpels and bone fragments. It’s both amusing and disturbing – an apt commentary on an increasing appetite for and obsession with (arbitrary) aesthetic perfection that, at this point, seems to claim its acolytes almost in infancy.

Warning: it's kind of gross, but not nearly as gross as the fact that we are still teaching younger and younger girls, and women, that it may be necessary to take such extremes to feel "beautiful".

It's Springtime, A-Ding-A-Ding Time

So this week I've been working on this flounce-front Sweatercoat Cardigan.

I started with this awesome lime green, teal blue and grey striped wool and went from there. Of course the original striped sweater was pretty cool, but it was sort of a bit much. I find with prints and stripes, a little goes a long way. So I used this crazy vibrant sweater as a "jumping off" point or "foundation sweater", knowing I was going to use it as the flounce down the front of my coat.

After playing with a dozen or so sweaters to try to find a couple that looked good and would work for the various parts of my "foundation sweater", I decided on a gorgeous "gem" green merino sweater that didn't exactly "match" anything in the stripes, but coordinated with it nicely, for the top of the coat. I also found a really nice creamy warm grey merino wool that I thought would work well for the mid-section of the sweater. I also managed to find a nice set of grey buttons, a shade darker than the grey I was using for the mid-section, that helped to "pop" the look.

I decided a bright green thread would do nicely to pull everything together. So I cut and sewed the top and mid-sections (so that it would flare out a bit from the waist to flatter and accommodate a woman's figure). Next, I draped everything on the dressform (the top and mid-section of the sweater, the flounce and the buttons) to see how it looked. For awhile I played with the idea of making this a longer coat, adding some more sections to the bottom, and finishing it with a straight hem made from sections. After staring at all of this for a day and trying various ideas, I decided to keep the coat shorter and go with a larger flounce to finish the bottom. Sometimes I think this is too much flouncing, but here it seemed to really pull everything together, especially on this shorter-length coat.

Once all the decisions were made it was just a matter of making the bottom flounce (also with coordinating inserts) and sewing everything together.

When that was all done, I looked at the coat again for a day before deciding to add a handfull of appliques to the back.