Aesthletics

A workout for those deciding-what's-pretty-and-what's-not muscles.

So, apparently, somebody has a car parked on his property. The gazing upon of said vehicle by some other property owners ("neighbors as a group"?) is displeasurable to those property owners. This has been revealed to said vehicle owner with an anonymous note. Said vehicle owner has responded in kind (in cardboard). In addition, yet other property owners find the vista con Plymouth quite the opposite of displeasurable and have formed an impromptu Little Blue Car fan club. 

Okay.

There are neighborhoods in the United States where things like when and if you are allowed to park a car outside your garage (and when and if you can put up holiday decorations and which paint colors you may use and which building style you may build and which landscaping you may plant and which yard lights you may and must install ... the list goes on and on) for the sake of overall aesthetics of the neighborhood are strictly regulated. I wouldn't want to live in a neighborhood like that, so I don't. 

Want to join the debate? This car is not mine, but I've got nothing better to write about today.

For the record, I am pro little blue car. I like the lines and I really dig the color.

Can today be Earth Day, too?

It's still a really nice Earth today, as well, so what the heck.

I wanted to announce this on Earth Day, but I wasn't completely certain of the details. So now I'm certain: All new Farbenmix and studioTANTRUM/fledge sewing patterns for North American distribution will be printed on post-consumer recycled paper. I still have a bunch of the patterns to go through which are printed on real tree-killer paper. But all the new ones printed will be on recycled paper. I should have done this right from the get-go. But here you go, nonetheless.

What will not be recycled are the designs. Always fresh, always new and always organically grown.

Serendipitous

I don't know where this image came from. I found the image downloading from the RAW-thingy and I don't remember taking this photo. Maybe the kids got ahold of the camera. Maybe a sentient being from another dimension is sending a chromatic message! Yeah, that's the ticket.

Sky, sea, glass, ... Anyway, I like it.

Thank you for all your kind and loving comments for my Stinkbug. She stunk. But in a good way. And stole the show.

Show business stinks.

I've seen enough episodes of Entourage to understand that the talent agent schmoozes and fishes for acting jobs for his client. When that work is found, it is the job of the talent manager to make the actor do his job. The manager has to encourage, rationalize, flatter, monger fear, argue, manipulate, justify, soft-soap, clear obstacles, plead, prate, cajole, coax, coordinate, cater to whims and foster idiosyncrasies and stroke ever so gently that fragile artist's ego (remember that, because I'm going to need your help there) ... all so that the show can go on. In other words, a talent manager is a mother.

My client recently got some work. I'm happy for her. The First Grade play could be a big opportunity. It's a chance for her to grow artistically. To stretch her creative wings.

If she had wings, that is. Like the butterflies ("Butterflies." Say that like Seinfeld says "Newman").

Thing is, my girl has been cast as the Stinkbug.

The Stinkbug. 

The Stinkbug, whom the other bugs make fun of. 

The Stinkbug, whom the other bugs don't want at the picnic. 

The Stinkbug, who is to appear on stage in front of the entire school adorned in dirty socks, onions and garlic cloves in a stage metaphor for a certain aggressive odiferousness.

Right.

At this casting decision, my client was, true to form, in a bit of a stink. Considering there were Labybug and Butterfly roles to be had, I hardly expected different from my client. You know my girl: Stinkbug? Now that Ryan kid: That Ryan kid has that rugged vulnerability that will elicit the audience response we want for the Stinkbug, right? Or Maddie. Sweet Maddie. Maddie with those heartbreaking doe-eyes. Now she charts very well with the primary school girls aged 5 to 11 demographic. That's good Stinkbug casting. But my girl?  Cricket, Gypsy Moth, Army Ant. My girl has broad range: She can do Army Ant. But Stinkbug?

Imagine now that I am talking to a locked dressing trailer door to muffled sobs (really, it's the slammed bedroom door, but in my mind, I'm on the Paramount back lot with Best Boys flirting with the Third Assistants to the Second Assistant and Gaffers and Key Grips impatiently swilling Fiji water).

"Darling, the Stinkbug is the most important role! It is the cathartic catalyst. It is the character that forces the other characters on their journey of self-realization! Without the Stinkbug, this is just a story about eating crumbs. You are the story. The Stinkbug lifts this to art. You, as the Stinkbug, could do for body odor what Dustin Hoffman in Rainman did for autism."

Okay: I didn't really say that.

What I said was, "Baby, you don't have to wear dirty socks. You can wear whatever you want. We'll go through all the fabrics and you pick out what you want. Stink as you might, you will be the cutest Stinkbug in all of theater history."

This is a real indy, bring-your-own-wardrobe kind of production. And I'll take some heat on the whole what-part-of-dirty-socks-costume-didn't-you-understand?-thing. But I have to protect my client's interests.

I don't care what you really think about this concoction of felt and craft glue, because my heart wasn't in making this. Not for me, but (and this is where you come in) for the First Grade play, for the love of all that is good and holy, write in the comments that this is the cutest Stinkbug in all of theater history.

For your cut-and-paste convenience:

This is the cutest Stinkbug in all of theater history. 

Credits (in order of appearance): Bug appliqué handcrafted by Creabine. ANTONIA mix & match shirt from Farbenmix. Fabrics available from BanberryPlace and FabricBliss.

I'm it.

I'm not all that. All that and a bag of chips. 

But I'm it.

Toni, Clara and Jen all tagged me. I suppose I'll give you 6 ...or is it 7?... I've done this before and those 7 facts are all there are to me. Really. 

More random facts:

1. Right now, we have a loaner car. It's a Mini Cooper. I crank up the Hives at full volume and lean my left leg against the door while driving so I can feel the vibrations. I am reeking havoc on the streets, pissing off every SUV I possibly can. It may become my reason for living. I am a menace.

2. We have this giant television and no television! Seriously. This thing is so schmancy, that the television doesn't get terrestrial channels (except for this one Korean soap opera channel, which isn't so bad, really ...). No cable. I hate cable. I think cable television is worse than drugs. We use this thing to watch movies. And to impress the neighbors. You know how television shows used to be the topic of conversation? Now it's just the television.

3. That's it! I gotta stop! There's nothing else! I have no tattoos, no piercings, no prior convictions ... I need a life. Or maybe cable television. "We are fated to pretend ... " that was playing in the Mini Cooper this morning, too.

4. I'm a real in-my-head kind of person. As much as I love fashion, my appearance is a shambles. I used to have a whole bunch of that natural good looks and disposable income and metabolism and charisma (I'm being honest), that I never spent any time learning how to work out regularly, or apply make-up or blow-dry or wax or pedicure or polish or whatever it is grown-up women know how to do. I walk around looking like a yeti, probably.

5. I like all three contenders for President. I'm really happy about this election. There's one contender I like a little better than the other two. But I won't be heartbroken if my candidate loses. It's a win-win-win for this one little voter.

6.  This week, I was heartbroken to have learned that fabric designers snap up vintage swatches and call them their own. Recolor or rescale as they may. Whatever. I guess that's why I see too much regurgitation. Regurgitation makes things easier to swallow, sure, but it's not fresh.

7. I don't know 7 bloggers well enough, who haven't been tagged. I think I'll tag the next seven blogs under "Next Blog" ...

http://amatorfutbol.blogspot.com Great. Turkish amateur soccer.

http://elrincondemax.com Uh-huh. Barcelona boy collects YouTubes. Those giggling quadruplets are pretty adorable.

http://nilesman.blogspot.com Niles seems like a really cool kid.

http://breguenaites.blogspot.com I don't speak Spanish. (Is this Spanish? Portugese?)

http://danieljuriyholthaus The life of a cute German toddler.

http://saramoonphotoblog.blogspot.com Hey, she's pretty good! And that would be my pedicure.

http://cayetanca.blogspot.com Hm. Some slavic lady sketches stuff. I like it.

http://welldunne.blogspot.com "Who's who and who's where in the world of entertainment marketing" Okay, I know now why television is just so bad. Thank you.

There we go! The curse is passed.

Best Things are Free Day 30

An eye for.

Do you see the eye in the picture? My son saw the eye in the tire tracks. My husband didn't.

What do you have an eye for? For color? For a good bargain? For the winning American Idol? For a good fixer-upper of a house? For a person's character? For a hot trend? For a political solution? For the pick-pocket in the crowd? For the answer to a mathematical equation? For the child with a painful secret? You have an eye for. Now what is it?

I think we all have an ability to see, which is very particular to ourselves. This ability to see is not an ocular function neccessarily. Blind people have an eye for, as well. Maybe blind people have a better eye for than the sighted.

I have had two different people email me this week, people whom I really, truly admire, real creatives and entrepreneurs both. In our separate discussions, they both wrote me this idiom:

"There's nothing new under the sun."

This saying really irks me. I mean, do these people live under the same sun as me? Are they talking about this sun or maybe some other sun? Or have they seen it all already and I am just way behind? I see new things every day. I cannot imagine that there are not new things discovered every second of every day by some one somewhere. Who came up with such a silly notion? Google...

Oh. Yeah. That's right.

This saying comes from the Bible, namely, Ecclesiastes 1:9-14:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

That can I accept. In the philosophical, metaphorical, bending-of-space-and-time, beyond-space-and-time way. 

But in the clumsy linear way in which we do and must experience life, I just think that there are new discoveries, new solutions, new answers, and, specifically in our little corner of creativity, completely new clothing designs and new fabric designs that can yet be made.

So, I'm throwing down. I don't want to hear "There's nothing new under the sun" unless you are ready to pull out the Good Book, some Stephan Hawking, maybe the Upanishads and anything else along those lines. I'm open to that.

But if you tell me there's no more new ideas to be had in textile creativity, like I said, I'm throwing down!

Well, that was a little more than 30 Days of Best Things are Free. In Buddhism, I've heard of the concept of annica. From what I understand, it is a principal of impermanence being an inescapable fact of human life, that nothing that belongs to this earth is ever free. When you see it that way, the free things become ever so much more valuable. Thank you for spending your valuable free time with me.

Best Things are Free Day 29

A handy tip. Like Die Machen Was's TOPS and FLOPS.

Uschi is sharing her favorite sewing gizmos and gadgets. Sabine has joined in. So will I. 

Here are two of my TOPS:

Sisal carpeting in the sewing area. Nobody here has ever gotten a pin stuck in their foot. And we are a no-shoes-in-the-house kind of people. The weave of the carpet is such, that the pinpoint goes down between the ridges instead of pricking your foot when you step on it. Most pins just lay between the ridges.

Viewtainers, available at the hardware store. Great for buttons and snaps and all that falderal. But also for storing and dispensing ribbon and bias tape, especially while stitching the miles and miles of bias tape used on the hems of most of my designs. I just let the Viewtainer loll there on the sisal carpeting as I keep pulling the tape or ribbon out.

Among the FLOPS? Well, I have quite a stormy relationship with a certain Pfaff 4862. It could be me. It could be the machine. I just don't think we get along. Is there such thing as counseling for crafters and their machines?

Ein hilfreicher Tip. Wie die AHA-die-machen-'was-Damens TOPS und FLOPS.

 

Sabine spielt mit. Ich will auch.

Ich empfehle Sisalteppich im Nähbereich. Bei uns ist keiner im Fuß von Stecknadeln gestochen worden. Und wir sind von der keine-Schuhe-im-Haus-Sorte. Der Teppich ist derart gewebt, daß die Spitze der Nadel nach unten in die Webe langt anstatt in den Fuß zu stechen wenn du drauftrittst.

Diese Viewtainers. Gibt's sicherlich 'was Ähnliches im Baumarkt bei euch. Für Knöpfe, Sicherheitsnadel und alle mögliche Kleinkrams ganz praktisch. Aber auch um Bänder aufzubewahren und auch auszuspenden, z.B. beim Ansteppen diese elendlange LAGUNA-Säume. Das Viewtainer lümmelt am Sisalteppich während ich das Band ansteppt.

Zu meinen FLOPS gehört eine gewiße Pfaff 4862. Vielleicht bin ich es. Vielleicht die Pfaff. Auf jeden Fall kommen wir mit einander nicht zurecht. Gibt's 'ne Art Beziehungshilfe für Näher und ihre Maschinen?

Aber mein allegrößtes TOP ist Farbenmix. Einfach unersätzlich.