buzzville

Artistic Women

Certainly it comes as no surprise to any of you that there are some fantastically amazing and talented women out there (of which you are one!), but I just discovered the works of a couple I thought I'd share.

Orly Cogan is an artist who does both drawing and embroidery, but I am most fascinated by her embroidered work. Much of her embroidered work begins as vintage embroidery that she "modernizes". The themes are largely gender-based and often sexual (venturing into the perverted), but I find them really interesting and thought provoking. Her work is included in an exhibit at the Moore Space in Miami called "Hanging by a Thread", which includes weaving, quilting, and papier-mache. Anyone out there in Miami? Here's a sample of Cogan's embroidery:

 

Andrea Zittel is a fascinating woman who creates her own "Designs for Living", including experimentation with furniture and clothing. She currently lives out in the Mojave Desert at her "test site" where she lives in relatively primitive conditions. I love her "A-Z Personal Uniforms" made of felted wool:

These women are, admittedly, crafting in the academic and theoretical spheres, but I always find it interesting to see how artists are pushing the boundaries of "craft".

Self-Portrait Tuesday

In case you were wondering, I have been intentionally avoiding self-portrait Tuesdays. I've never liked the camera - probably since birth - and having photos taken of me is torture enough, let alone voluntarily taking photos of myself. So, although I'm posting something today, I may never post another self-portrait... we'll see. This was taken during a quiet moment during Brynne's nap this afternoon; I don't pretend to think this is a particularly good or artistic photo - it is what it is.

Hmmmm, maybe I should pluck those eyebrows more than once every three months!

I really related to Stephanie's self-portrait post today - motherhood has probably never been what I expected. Maybe it was the season finale of Six Feet Under, but I've been thinking about *big* topics lately. I was a little blue the other night because I realized that when Jerry and I are old and Brynne is long grown up leading her own life, we will long to re-live the days we're living now - days where she scampers across the grass hunting for sticks and nuts - days where an honest, gut-busting laugh is as easy as a little tickle - days where all she wants is for mommy and daddy to sit with her and read books, color, and play games. And yet, while we are living these moments, our minds are distracted with work, the house, bills, our own hobbies, what's for dinner, and our own silly gripes with each other. I've heard the phrase that youth is wasted on the young, and now I feel that the joys of parenthood are sometimes wasted on parents in their twenties and thirties.

Grandparents have it made; they have much more experience and perspective under their belts, they have usually reached a more comfortable place with their finances and life situation, and upon retirement they are able to focus completely on what is truly important to them. When my mom was here a couple of weeks ago to help with Brynne, I watched Brynne thriving with the constant attention and stimulation - always something new and fun to do with Grandma. Each day she went to bed exhausted and happy, her mind filled with all the wonderful things she had learned and experienced with Grandma. It's much the same now that she's back in preschool two mornings a week - new activities, new friends, and new lessons await her with every class. I'm frustrated that I can't keep up with her interests and activities, but at the same time I don't want to ignore my own needs and goals. The worst part is that the biggest victim in all of this has been my relationship with my husband. As we approach our seventh anniversary next week, I realize how little time we have with each other. During the week we're lucky to get two hours together in the evening, and by that time we are so mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted that all we want to do is vegetate in front of the tv, read a magazine, surf the computer, or play computer games (Jerry!). Since we don't have any family nearby, it's nearly impossible to schedule a "date night" except on the rare occasions when family is visiting. How does everyone else handle this? I'm sure my current less-than-happy state is temporary, but I'm definitely pondering life, priorities, and family - so many things (work, the driveway, our ailing car, etc.) seem to be fading fast into the background.

Finished Nappy Bag!

I mentioned here that I would post what I am sending as part of the swap with Takeyah. She is so sweet - she didn't want something for herself, but rather asked if I could make something for her sister who was soon to have a baby (In fact, that new little baby was born today! Blessings to the new one and family!). I had been waiting for an excuse to use one of the Amy Butler patterns, so I thought I'd try out the Nappy Bag pattern for the mom-to-be. When I suggested Amy Butler fabric, Takeyah seemed enthusiastic, and since the sex of the baby was unknown, she helped steer me toward the Tea Garden pallette in the Charm line. Here is the finished bag:

If you aren't familiar with the pattern, it's quite roomy, with lined pockets running around the full interior of the bag. It also has a little exterior cell phone pocket (seen at the base of the right strap). In case you can't tell from this photo, the bag is lined in this fabric:

For anyone curious about the Amy Butler patterns, I found this one quite easy to follow. The only surprise was the incredible amount of fabric required (4 3/4 yards of cotton plus 1 3/4 yards of canvas for the lining!). I wouldn't have thought of the canvas lining, but it really does give the bag a sturdy, substantial feel. There was also quite a lot of topstitching, which always makes me a bit nervous! All in all, I'm quite happy with how it came out... now I just have to finish up the goodies to go in the bag! I really hope that Takeyah's sister likes the bag and gets good use out of it!

Craft Book Postscript

Ok, here are not so great photos of the other 2 books recently added to my Japanese craft book collection. Since I couldn't find photos to lift from the web, these are my own (glare and all!).

ISBN 4277490395 This is another small book of amigurumi patterns. 12 patterns in all including bears, finger puppets, chihuahuas, panda, bunny, etc.

ISBN 4894442299 This is a book of postcards featuring designs from the Salvia line by Yurio Seki. Wonderful modern color and pattern inspiration here - interesting as graphics, but also as inspiration for quilting, embroidery, applique, etc. Many thanks to Hillary for first introducing me to Seki's work.

I've been getting a few questions about how and where to get these books, so for the uninitiated, here is what I recommend. I now buy all of my Japanese craft books from YesAsia or Amazon Japan. The interface for YesAsia is in English, which makes it easier to navigate, set up an account, etc. The interface for Amazon Japan is mostly in Japanese, but the site is organized exactly like Amazon in English. So, if you want to try Amazon Japan, you might try opening up 2 browser windows (one for Amazon in your country and the other for Amazon Japan), and just mimic the same steps on the Japanese site as you would on your own country's site. You can search by ISBN number on both sites (don't use any dashes) to locate a specific book. Amazon Japan has a lot more cover photos than YesAsia, so sometimes I use both in tandem - find a book on YesAsia and if there is no photo, go to Amazon Japan to see what it looks like. Amazon Japan is also useful to find other books that you don't yet know about - just like the English sites, Amazon Japan will feature similar or recommended books on a page. For example, if you type in the ISBN number for an amigurumi book, the page featuring that book will also include links to other books on similar topics. This is a great way to find new books that you haven't seen elsewhere.

I hope this helps! Send me an email if you run into problems, and I'll try to help.

More Japanese Craft Books?!?

Yes, I'm sure you already know that I have an addiction to Japanese craft books. So, I'm posting my latest purchases here with a brief description, and these will all be added to the Japanese Craft Book gallery.

ISBN 4529038521 This book features patchwork and applique patterns for bags, softies, wall hangings, clothing, pillows, etc. by contemporary Japanese quilter Maruya Yoneko.

ISBN 4529037541 This book features several patterns for bags, clothing, sewing notions, quilts, etc. and also includes a section of different quilt blocks with examples of how they can be used to different effects with different colors, scales, and arrangements on a finished piece. Great step-by-step photos for anyone interested in learning how to do patchwork.

ISBN 4834721663 This book includes project ideas for contemporary sashiko, including lots of different sashiko patterns and how to stitch them.

ISBN 4797496053 This is a book of postcards with really amazing children's illustrations. I'm finding this to be a great source of inspiration for color palletes - fun and unusual color combinations abound! Thanks to Lisa for discovering this gem and sharing it with me!

ISBN 9621419972 A great amigurumi book. This one is small, but has lots of fantastic patterns, including accessories!

ISBN 9621419980 Another great amigurumi book in the Petit DIY Series - small book but packed with good stuff!

I have a few more books to add, but I can't seem to locate their cover photos anywhere, and it's night here. So, I'll wait until tomorrow so that I can take photos of the covers...

Swappy Goodness from Japan!

I've been having some rough weeks lately - too much work, too much stress, and the ridiculous driveway/insurance business that I've been dealing with - so it just brightened me up when I got home yesterday to an incredible package from Takeyah! We had set up a little swap a while back when I was openly begging for folks in Japan to do a swap with me - yes, I can be that pathetic! Takeyah was sweet enough to volunteer, and here are the fruits of her shopping labors:

4 beautiful Japanese fabrics, 3 different pieces of plaid ribbon, and a vintage Japanese book on log cabin quilt designs!

stationary and paper products galore! check out the Strawberry Twins and the grazing cows!!!

Your eyes are not deceiving you... Decole!!! A house oven mitt, mushroom towel, "bistro" chef utensils and mushroom utensils (plus an elegant sakura tea cup to boot!)!

Plus, all of these amazing bento goodies! Brynne has already been enjoying these in her lunch box, although I'm afraid my food presentation is no match for those clever Japanese moms who create little works of food art every day!

Can you believe Takeyah managed to pack all of that goodness into one package?!? Now I've got to get my end of the deal finished up and in the mail... I'll post that when it's all finished. Thanks Takeyah for an incredible kawaii package - really fun!!

Vintage Apron Goodness!

Thanks to Amy we have two fabulous new Flickr groups: Vintage Aprons and Vintage Apron Patterns! I've started uploading my vintage apron patterns to the group, but I haven't located them all yet (must get craft stuff organized!)... This one is my absolute favorite - I just love the sunflower applique. Of course, I haven't gotten around to making it yet, but one of these days...

On the bandwagon at last...

I'm sure I'm probably the last person to make this particular discovery, but I'm writing this post just in case there's one other person out there who has yet to discover the amazing work of Jean Ray Laury. In particular, I've just snatched up several of her older books (published in the 60s and 70s) that have me completely bowled over. Although these books are long out of print, they are available used for nothing on Amazon or through eBay - I've linked to the Amazon pages...

Quilts & Coverlets: A Contemporary Approach is a fantastic book filled with great inspiration for modern quilt designs and techniques. Here are some of the color plates:

look at those cute apple, mushroom and whale blocks!

great 70s color scheme!

Applique Stitchery is also full of incredible projects. Some of these just make me squeal!

I can hardly stand this gorgeous color palette - I've always been a sucker for blue, green, and purple!

I particularly like the botanical style of the one on the right...

Finally, A Treasury of Needlecraft Gifts for the New Baby has some cute craft ideas for little ones - from quilts, to bibs, to carriers, etc. She has some great examples of childrens' artwork being adapted for quilt blocks (are you reading Amanda?!?):

I keep meaning to make a fun soft book for my nephew...

Sugar baby quilt!!!

I know that was a lot of pics, but I hope you found them worth it! I'm definitely going to check out some more of her books because I've found these to be incredibly inspiring...

A Free Weekend!!!

Lots of catching up to do here... First off, many thanks to all of you for your sympathetic and supportive comments on our driveway. We've decided to go ahead and do the driveway replacement, not just because our insurance company is demanding it, but because we were planning on doing it down the road anyway. Our current driveway is hideous asphalt, with the quick fix tar slurry painted over the top. So, although we could just reapply the slurry, that stuff is horrible - it stinks, gets tracked into the house (destroying the floors), and will just end up cracking and flaking again. Since we replaced all our flooring (with beautiful tile and hardwood) in the past 2 years, I don't want to destroy the flooring with a fresh coat of tar on the driveway. We're going to do this the way we really want it done, and it will make a big difference to the curb appeal of our home... If you all are interested, I can post before, during, and after photos once we get underway. I'm sure it will be a bit disruptive to our lives!

This past weekend my in-laws came to visit with the promise of taking care of Brynne and letting Jerry and I get to know each other again. Since we have no family nearby, this was a rare opportunity for us to get some alone time. Friday night we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the 4th movie we've seen in the theater since Brynne was born!) - it was great... squirrels!!!

On Saturday we did something we'd been wanting to do since we moved to California six years ago - visit the Channel Islands. For those of you who don't know, the Channel Islands are a chain of 8 islands off the southern California coast from Santa Barbara down to a bit beyond Long Beach. Five of the islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara) are located quite close to us and can be accessed from the Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Oxnard harbors. Most of the land on the islands is protected and owned by the National Park Service or the Nature Conservancy, and the waters around the islands are marine sanctuaries. Needless to say, this is an incredible resource for us, and we were very late in taking advantage. We took a boat from the Ventura harbor to Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands, and spent the day hiking pretty challenging trails on one end of the island. Here is a photo of the island emerging from the fog early Saturday morning as we approached on our boat:

There are many reasons to visit the islands: natural beauty, archaeological finds, amazing kayaking, snorkeling, and diving, and a rather bizarre history. What we found really interesting is the entire history of occupation - from the Native Americans to the Spanish in the fourteenth century (feral pigs descended from the original Spanish pigs still roam the island!) to the eccentric private ownership and ranching to the current protected park status! Here's a typical image from the amazing coastline (lots of cool caves and rock formations that can be explored by kayak):

I know I've gone on about this day trip, but I highly recommend it to anyone who lives or visits southern California. It's a little pricey to get out there ($48 per person round trip for a day), but definitely worth it.

On Sunday we woke to find ourselves rather sore (who knew climbing mountains used so many muscles?!?), but ready to tackle the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market. This happens the second Sunday of every month and is quite an amazing experience. There are plenty of vendors with new merchandise, but the true wonders are to be found with the vintage and antique dealers. It's really quite overwhelming in size, variety, and quality of goods to be found. I'm not sure there are any amazing bargains to be found (this is southern California, after all!), but lots of great vintage clothing, textiles, buttons, glassware, furniture, toys, etc. to browse. We wandered through it all pretty quickly, but I did snatch up some vintage buttons for $1 per card:

Phew, that might be my longest post yet! With all the family visits and driveway madness, I'm rather behind in crafting. But, I do start my next quilting class on Thursday, so I should be getting some quilt projects worked on (finally!). I'll do my best to have some more fun stuff to show you this week!

A little rage...

I'll admit it, I've been too full of vim and vigor the past couple of days to put together a happy post. A couple of days ago we received a notice from our homeowner's insurance company that they will not renew our policy come September 24th because "specific recommendations to improve property have not been completed". Now, this was the first we had heard of this - we hadn't received any other communications indicating that they wanted us to "improve" our property. After several conversations with various insurance reps, I learn that they supposedly sent us a memo last November that we needed to replace our driveway because there are some cracks in it which might cause someone to trip, fall, and sue their asses. We'll just ignore the fact that these "cracks" are less than an 1/8" deep and much shallower than any "seams" you encounter on a standard concrete sidewalk. We'll also ignore the fact that they suggested I was lying when I said I hadn't heard anything about this before.(why would I make that up? so that I'd have even less time to comply with their asinine demands?!?) What I can't ignore is that now I'm forced to get contractors in for estimates and have all the work completed well before Sept. 24th so that our policy won't get cancelled. Aside from the fact that this work will probably cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 (this is California!), contractors in our area are notoriously hard to get to commit to smaller residential jobs because there are so many big and more lucrative commercial projects going on. Ugh! I'm so angry with these people... Certainly we'd be the first to admit that the driveway isn't pretty, but we were trying to use our "home improvement" fund for items we felt were more pressing: a new fence now that Brynne is spending more and more time in the yard; a new roof (this one looks pretty old); or how about doing a mini-remodel of our master bath that hasn't been worked on since the house was built in 1956? No - now we're being forced to spend our money on a new driveway so that these ultra-conservative insurance underwriters don't have to stay awake at night fearing that 1 in 1 trillion chance that someone might trip. Sorry to rant like this, but it's all I've been able to think about...

On a positive note, I did get to spend some time today with Mariko, her hubby Peter, and adorable dog Deedle while they're displaced from their home for termite tenting. We went to a crazy fabric/craft store I discovered in Oxnard, the Fabric Well, where they have good fabric for only $4 a yard. I think she went home with some good stuff for her next crafty projects. I didn't realize this in advance, but today is her birthday too! Happy Birthday Mariko!

To try and round out this generally grumpy post, here's something amazingly cute. We've always gotten Robeez shoes for Brynne - not only are they great because little ones can't get them off, but the company is also an example of a work at home mom making it in the business world. I just discovered their latest fall designs; check these out:

I'm so in love with the birds, but those are only available in sizes up to 18-24 months. Argh! Someone please get these for your little one so that I can live vicariously through you... they're just too cute! I might have to get the robots even though they're pretty boyish - at least those come in Brynne's size!