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We’ve got two days left in this hellcat of a month and I’ll be happy to say ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’ once it’s over. I think this may have been the worst November I’ve experienced since I was 16 years old, which is saying alot as that was a horrible November.
Here are a few heartwarming things which I’m counting on to get me through the next couple of days:
– I just watched Wall*E. I know I’m a little late jumping on that bandwagon but I’m glad I finally did. It’s life-affirming on the same level as the Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is. Go watch it…again.
– I’ve got some employment prospects coming up which are promising. I’m crossing my fingers and toes.
– Sunday will be decorating and tree-trimming day. The sprogs have finally won out and I’m happy to give in.
– I’ve had a crazy amount of ideas lately and have been able to see a lot of them through to fruition. Teasers to come.
– the Free People Boutique has an amazingly cute holidays ’08 card available for downloading and printing. You can check it out here.
– I get to come home to a great family everyday. Can’t really beat that.
It has to be said that I’ve a lot of inspirational people in my life and not the least of them are my parents. I didn’t turn out this way by accident and I have them to thank for it for better or for worse. I’ve already shared with you a few of my mum’s quirks and today I would like to share with you a few of my dad’s.
My dad and his partner live in rural southern Ontario just outside the small town my mum lives in. They have a gorgeously landscaped and rather large lot backed by farmer’s fields & wooded areas. On this they’ve made a real home which fits both of their lifetstyles and caters to their need to make stuff. Their basement is a veritable crafter’s paradise filled with everything from heavy woodworking machinery to fine laces and trims. They’ve each got their area of expertise and interest but sometimes those come together and the results are generally awe-inspiring and envy-inducing…well, for my city-slicking self, anyway.
Here are a couple of their latest accomplishments:
That is the newly reconstructed chicken coop. Necessity was the mother invention on this project as they had so many issues with weasels. Many of the fittings are reclaimed from the previous coop, auction finds and lumber yard cast offs.
And that’s the greenhouse. Well-used, well-loved and made almost entirely of reclaimed materials.
Side view:
Isn’t it lovely? That’s a rabbit enclosure off the back. I’m envious of the rhododendron in there. Oh what I could do with a greenhouse like that.
Someday I’ll get out there and get pictures of all of the other wonderful & creative things they’ve done in their yard because it’s one of the coolest places I know, but in the meantime there’s your taste of the genetics involved in moi. See where I’m coming from?
Ruffles have been inner than in for a few seasons now and I have to say I quite like that and they’re no likely to go away any time soon. Although I do argue that ruffles can go horribly, horribly wrong, I love that they’re being applied to just about everything for a fresher, softer, more romantic look. Everything in moderation, right?
Here are some favourite ruffly things, via etsy. Click the pics to go to the store:
Alright, nevermind the thing I said about moderation. This profusion of ruffles melts my heart:
…as does this one:
…and this one too:
Are you wearing ruffles? What’s your favourite ruffly thing?
Discuss. I’m going to go put ruffles on stuff. Possibly even the dog.
No? I’m usually very anti-wallpaper as I tend to enjoy relatively neutral walls but loads of colour in the art and furnishings within them. But this? This makes me happy. I found the image through Desire to Inspire. The rest of the space is incredibly cool as well. I love that it hasn’t adopted any single decor style and is as expressive and pulled together as it is.
I also need to get to bed at a decent time to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for a craft show tomorrow so Ill leave you from this stunning image of impossible cool.
The show is at R.F. Downey P.S. in the north end. It would be lovely to see some of you lovelies.
I just need to say that Sam Trammell is positively yummy in his Sam Merlotte incarnation in HBO’s True Blood. Doesn’t help that he looks a bit like Wayne Coyne.
Speaking of which. Someone’s going to get me Christmas on Mars as a present, right?
I bought Kelly Rae Roberts’ book, Taking Flight, as a gift from me to me with love a couple of months ago. I don’t usually go for the self-help/warm fuzzy/new agey diy type books this one seemed to be but something made me want it so I toddled on down to Titles to order it and I’m glad I did. Although there is a lot of self-help/warm fuzzy/new agey diying in it there’s also a lot of practical information on the techniques she uses as well as the inspiration she draws from to make her art happen. She also goes off (but not too far off) on a decidedly journalistic bent in getting the stories, techniques and sources of inspiration from 7 other artists and wends everything back to the source in a true feat of storytelling. I don’t know if her editor is super-human or if Kelly herself is just that good but at the end of the day she has produced a wonderful little book about creating around what one knows and how to go about doing it. I’m genuinely happy I have it.
Despite the undeserved scorn for them in the fashion world, their affiliation with pompous twats like Tim Burton (I LOVE YOU TIM BURTON…even if you’re a pompous twat) and neurotic status in decorating…eye ❤ stripes of all stripes.
That is the composter between our house and the house next door and it’s progeny, a happy, accidental pumpkin which beat the odds in an environment set against it and climbed those Maslowian rungs to self-actualisation.
Now we just need to decide on a recipe by which to honour its achievement. Any ideas?
Mark Wagner uses $1 bills to mess with your head. The mister pointed me in the direction of his oeuvres last night and I haven’t turned back. His works are sometimes overtly and sometimes subtly challenging, but always technically impeccable and visually stunning.
Of his work Wagner says ‘The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable… the foreign in the familiar.‘
Can you say ‘gestalt’?
cushti 