be your own superstar
Monday 27 February, 2006
I noticed that around the new year various bloggers were making some interesting resolutions around their creativity. It started when:
Swirlygirl decided to make 500 art creations in 2006.
This made so much sense to me...if you make it about a number, about output...then you won't get hung up on 'perfection' or 'getting it right'. It seems that it will lead to (probably) some terrible art but also lots of experimentation, playfulness and productivity. A wonderful idea.
then Katrina of FeistyScribe resolved this:
"I'm going to take a page out of Swirly's playbook. I set a goal for the number of images I want to take this year: 8,000. I figure I only get a few good images out of the 50 or so I normally take each time. I want to push myself to take more images and to look for more interesting angles and colors. Today I'm resetting the counter on my camera so I can keep track."
Again, a great idea to make it about a number rather than agonising over the results of your efforts. I don't have this problem with photography because I am a snap-happy kinda girl and take way too many - but I applauded Katrina's resolution. And then while these things were cooking away in my brain...
Kate at Self-Taught Girl said this:
"I have resolved to finish a sketchbook, and ... I am prepared to "make some really bad art at first." And inspired by the amazing Swirly and her 500 paintings, I have resolved that I will use up all of my art supplies this year, with the rule that I cannot buy new ones until the old ones have been used up. So many of my supplies are going bad because I haven't used them up. Well, no more. I will paint and collage and use pastels and crayons and markers and pieces of paper until every last supply is gone. I will create some really shitty art. And all of it will be for one purpose: not to be a painter or try to get a show, but to let go of the past a bit."
and I was reading this collage book by Christine Hellmuth and she wrote something like (sorry I've returned it to the library so can't quote accurately) "People always assume that I must have piles and piles of materials around my house, but I don't at all. I find it more inspiring to gather a few, use them all up and then go out to look for fresh materials."
Huzzah! This and what Kate said really resonated with me, because I am terribly guilty of stock-piling both art materials AND craft materials for 'one day' when I 'know how to do that properly' or 'can think of the perfect project' to use the materials for. With collage - I've definitely noticed that I get bored quickly with the images in my stash, so it definitely makes sense to use stuff up and then get fresh images.
SO! No more! I have resolved to start being non-precious and non-perfectionist about this stuff and to 'clear some chi' in Feng Shui terms, by just getting stuck in and making, reconstructing, altering, sewing, decoupaging, printing, taking apart, painting, applique-ing all of the bits of stuff I have in my overflowing art materials cupboard and my totally terrifying craft/fabric cupboard.
I had been thinking I needed to sort them. I don't need to sort them at all. I just need to USE them.
It can be as small as sewing stars on to a silver singlet (above) or as big as finally decoupaging the trunk in my garage with old oriental prints. (I have had this project in mind forever but have been scared of beginning it, lest it ends up looking like arse...see how strangulating the perfectionist thing can be?) I ADORE reconstructed clothing and have a bunch of retro clothes sitting around that I've been planning to alter/reconstruct but again...was waiting for that day when I become the 'perfect seamstress'. Pah! Sucks to that - I'm just going to hack and sew and if it doesn't work - it can get turned into dusters or dress-up box fodder.
Since making this resolution (a week ago) I have:
-unpicked a retro dress and am in the process of making a skirt from the bottom half and a sleeve/shrug thing from the sleeves.
-made lots of progress on an altered book I am making for a friend but had abandoned because it wasn't 'perfect'
-used up some fabric flowers by sewing them on to a bright stripy scarf - it looks wonderful!
-appliqued felt flowers on to a retro velvet winter bag
-learned a couple of new stitches and embroidered some felt heart brooches
-done a really, really bad painting on canvas
-made a big pile of hand-drawn patches
It feels good just to leap in and make, try, experiment. My resolution is less about a number and more like Kate's one of using up a stock-pile.
Wheee! Thanks, wonderful blogging community for the continuing inspirational nutrition! I'll start sharing some photographs of my creations with you soon.
Posted on 27 February, 2006 | 9:02am | 1 comments |
The Goose Bath
Sunday 26 February, 2006
This shop is in Brooklyn, Wellington. I love the way the owners have let the ivy take over. It looks like the whole shop is a big topiary with a bit of shop built on to the front, as though inside the shops it would just be a tangle of green. People should let plants go wild in the city more often.
***
I read with some excitement in the weekend papers that there is a new book of Janet Frame's poetry out: 'The Goose Bath'. I have her only other volume 'The Pocket Mirror' and love a handful of poems out of it. (I'm super-fussy about poetry, so it is rare for me to love more than one poem from any given volume.) Apparently the book is arranged chronologically, so there are poems about her childhood, her European years, about old age etc so it sounds like this volume will be a lovely companion to her autobiography.
Major grump though: LOOK at the hideous cover and book design. Because I am an aesthetically motivated (read: slightly shallow and often judge books by their covers!) person, I feel very disappointed and disgusted at the yukky, un-lovely, painfully literal, thrown-together look of this cover (check the 90's fake typewriter font, too). Now I'm in a quandry - where I was going to splash out on the book, now I'm not sure I want to own something so ugly! And I notice the price is a whopping $40, too, whereas most poetry books retail for $25. Janet is dead, so where are the royalities going? Hopefully towards her literary trust or something...but I can't help feeling that this is a cynical move on the publisher's front to maximise profit...everyone knows how much writers and artist's popularity soars once they are dead!
Gripes aside, it will be lovely to read previously unpublished Janet Frame poetry.
Posted on 26 February, 2006 | 2:36pm | 2 comments |
a bunch of stuff
Thursday 23 February, 2006
I made afghan biscuits (why are they called afghans? I doubt they are from afghanistan.) for Willo's lunch boxes last night. Biscuits that require icing always look so delightful on the cooling tray. More like art than food. I think I'll always make icing biscuits from now on...more aesthetically motivating! :p
***
Big thanks to you all for the wonderful advice about Melbourne. I forgot to mention we are going NEXT autumn, not this one...(no money right now plus Magnus is too little to leave) but I've filed all of your suggestions...I'm definitely getting that Brunswick Street is a MUST.
***
A little more on style...I was pondering in my journal last night why it has been such a big thing for me lately. I think it is because a) I'm going to wean Magnus soon so will be able to wear DRESSES (bliss!) and lots of LAYERS (swoon!) again b) autumn is swiftly approaching and it is my favourite season and I love cold-weather clothes c) I'm trying to work out what is floating my boat style-wise now that I'm coming out of little-baby-ville.
I've been reading the archives of Tricia - a super-stylish New York based fashion design student. She has a beautiful sense of style and colour and she makes yummy things with wool. Reading her blog you get a) some snatches of New York life b) lots of style inspiration c) she sometimes muses about fashion/style 'issues' d) she has her finger on the pulse of fashion so that YOU don't have to...ha ha...
After binging on style-sites this week - I'm thinking that this autumn/winter I am going to be into:
-purple tights with red shoes
-short tailored jackets with lots of badges/brooches
-applique-ing words and pictures on to scarves
-growing my hair a little (shoulder length)
-cloche hats
-wearing skirts as 'boob tube dresses' over thin woollen jerseys and pants (looks better than it sounds, I swear)
-felt
-skirts made from old blankets
-skulls/the day of the dead/voodoo
-eyes
-enormous fabric flowers
-steel-toe boots painted with blue glitter
-tweed made punk with applique
-finding a way to make retro skirt aprons into something wearable (drop-waisted skirts?)
-garments as art
-red, orange and bright pink together
-vintage buttons sewed in interesting places
-words sewed with ribbon
Mmm...looking at that list...most of that stuff I'm perenially into. Maybe I need to go look at some more style websites - ha ha.
***
I got the most amazing mail swap today from Melissa. (She used to have the blog 'Quiet Cricket' but is having a blog break.) We did a colour swap - green for her, red for me. Today I got a box of lush redness...egg cup, knitting needles, fabrics, books, a top with a retro red mushroom badge, heart lollies, crafty fixings and the most delicious red, resin bracelet. (I know, you wanna see photos, right? Sorry, M is due to wake any second and there just isn't time. But trust me, it was a treat and a half.)
I can't recommend mail swaps enough. They are so much fun and you feel like it's your birthday when you get your box of stuff in the mail. YUMMO!
Busy weekend ahead - so see you next week! (And I promise next week won't be all about style and clothes...I'm starting to feel very fickle.)
Posted on 23 February, 2006 | 10:47am | 0 comments |
helsinki fruits
Wednesday 22 February, 2006
Okay okay I'll move onto a new subject tomorrow...but look! MORE great street fashion, this time from the streets of Helsinki. These Finlander peeps are super-stylish.
There is lots of great bright coloured hair, lovely cold weather wear and of course, muchos stripy socks!
Enjoy!
Posted on 22 February, 2006 | 2:28pm | 1 comments |
western fruits
Tuesday 21 February, 2006
I had a few excited emails after yesterday's post, so here is another style hang-out on the internet. It is a Flickr group called Wardrobe Remixed where 'ordinary' people (mainly from the USA and UK) showcase how they put their wardrobe together in different ways. (The photo above is from a post-er called 'Jek-in-the-box')
There are some super-yummy combinations of clothes to be seen here. I've found the best way to navigate this photo-set is to set it to slideshow and reduce the time each image is up to 1.5 seconds - then, when you have something boring to do like breastfeeding or shelling peas...watch the slideshow for a bit and get inspired. If you are a fervent blog-reader like me you will also spot some 'blog-stars' - I'm not naming names because they may wish to remain anonymous...but you'll see 'em there (and no, I'm not talking about myself...being pregnant and then breast-feeding has meant that I haven't considered myself in the least bit stylish for some time now...but I live in hope for the future. It's hard to be elegant or well-put-together when you have to access your boobs every hour and are constantly covered in mashed banana and baby snot.)
It's definitely making me hanker for winter clothes, because the best combinations are the wintery ones involving layers and layers and scarves and boots and woolen stripy tights!
Posted on 21 February, 2006 | 3:26pm | 2 comments |
the freshest fruits
Monday 20 February, 2006
If, like me, you fell in love with the Fruits exhibition of Japanese Street Fashions that recently did the rounds around NZ and the world (I saw it THREE times...the Dowse, the Sarjeant and the Manawatu City Gallery)...you will love this site, which has lots of photos of Tokyo street fashions and is updated every month! So much juicy inspiration.
Yum.
Posted on 20 February, 2006 | 4:50pm | 1 comments |
melbourne in autumn
Sunday 19 February, 2006
Last night Fraser and I had one of those big conversations that you have, lying in the dark with your lover, examining the various corners of your life together...asessing, planning, resolving.
One thing that is SO HARD when you have small children is to get any meaningful, satisfying 'couple time'. Even though we are a caring and affectionate couple, sometimes we can get to Sunday bedtime and look at one another and think "Where have you been? Who are you?"...the week has passed in a blur of family activity, errands, work pressures, outings, child dramas...
By the end of the conversation we decided to plan and save for a trip to Melbourne - just the two of us. No kids. It is nearly a decade...A DECADE! since we have travelled outside New Zealand. I have seriously itchy feet.
Why Melbourne?
Because we have somewhere to stay there for free (my cousin!), because neither of us have explored Australia further than Sydney airport (a half hour stop en route to the UK). Because a dear friend is moving there from the UK. Because in magazines like Inside Out Melbourne always looks stunning. And because one of my favourite films, Love and Other Catastrophes (that's the cast of that film above) is set in Melbourne in autumn and it looks SO gorgeous!
We could go to Auckland or Wellington or the South Island, but we want to go somewhere new, somewhere in a different country, somewhere where we will need a guidebook and a map and people will think our accents are funny. We are both hankering for some adventure, some 'intrepidness', some fun.
I feel a little curl of excitement spiralling in my stomach. Half of the fun with trips is in the planning. We are going to buy a Melbourne guidebook, I'm going to make a Melbourne 'image board' - pictures out of magazines etc to daydream over, and now when I have those thoughts on dark days of wanting to escape...I'll have a destination in mind.
Fraser said, "I DO want to go, but I feel like we should use the money to pay a bit off our mortgage or do up the bathroom or something" which is a noble, grown-up response...but I think our trip will be all the sweeter for the thought at the back of our minds that we shouldn't really be doing it. Isn't that the best way to have fun?
So, SSS readers, two questions for you...1) How do YOU make time for intimacy and feeding your relationship when you have small children? 2) What are YOUR must-see destinations in Melbourne?
Posted on 19 February, 2006 | 8:08am | 7 comments |
give peas a chance
Thursday 16 February, 2006
Sorry. Bad pun.
I am rockin' on the peas I've been growing - I love the taste, I love the white flowers on the vines, I love the little tendrils that grow in crazy spirals so that the plant can climb and grow, I love holding the baby ones up to the sky and seeing the little peas through the opaque pod, like a fetal-scan...in fact there is something very fetal about peas that I like a lot.
FELLOW BLOGGERS...COME OUT!
Hey, if you are a regular reader of me, can you let me know if you have a blog yourself? I know of some people's blogs, but I'd hate to think there were (especially NZ and Australian) bloggers reading me when I'm not reading you back. I want to update my links, too. So please, reveal yourselves to me, bloggers!
Posted on 16 February, 2006 | 11:03am | 0 comments |
zeitgeist
Wednesday 15 February, 2006
Mati Rose : pink and red together : Orange-flavoured Dark Chocolate : the thought of autumn coming : Keren Ann's 'Nolita' : standing in my vegetable garden eating peas straight out of their shells : retro fabric badges : mail swaps : purple tights : strumming my new guitar : hand-drawing stickers : researching face-painting ideas (I've been assigned the face painting stall at Willo's school gala day) :
filo pastry parcels : rock pools : green tea perfume : baby-free time : my yoga class (ten Margarets and rising!) : finding beauty in a 'bad' neighbourhood : Holly Golightly : my new white crocheted tank top (circa 1975) : cicada shells : warm grass under bare feet : sleep (when I can get it!) : this skirt (omigod! sooo delightful)
What is your zeitgeist?
Posted on 15 February, 2006 | 9:14am | 1 comments |
Lo-Fi is my-fi
Tuesday 14 February, 2006
I like Lo-Fi. I like the hiss and fuzz of 'bad' recordings. I like homemade clothes with zig-zagged edges and fraying hems. I like crooked, photocopied 'zines. I like 'amateur' art. I like rhubarb and apple pies with lumpy pastry and non-perfect edges. I like to see how people got to their final product. I like hand made and home made and not 'Made In China'. I like it when people write me letters in their own handwriting, decorated with doodles and magazine cuttings, with their saliva on the gum of the envelope and the stamp on crooked infinitely more than seeing an email in my in-box. I like collages where you can see the sellotape and the crooked edges and the hand-drawn scrawls.
I hate corporate appropriation of Lo-Fi. I hate sweat shops. I hate 'perfection'. I hate the capitalist system scaring people away from their own creativity (because if you can't do it 'perfectly' why do it? why not buy it?). I hate slick and souless. I hate it that at-home mothers are modern western society's underclass. I hate it when people ask me "what I do" when they really mean "how much do you earn?" and I hate it how their eyes glaze over when I say I'm a mother, a writer, a part-time university tutor. (None of these have 'status'.)
Yigh. Can you tell I'm feeling a bit ranty today? I've been angsting about 'what to do with my life' - (as if I'm not already doing it)...and the fact is, I want to stay at home for my children (income value = $0.00), I want to write (income value = a couple of thousand a year at the most) and I want to teach creativity to people. (income value = probably less than the dole...but hey, the dole is $15,000 a year more than an at-home mama gets.)
I guess the trick is to get out of the money loop as much as possible. Don't buy it, make it. Don't 'need' it if you don't really need it. Cultivate friends who value the Lo-Fi life as much as I do...
but some days I get so mad that what I contribute to society is so 'valueless' in the current unimaginative, capitalist, consumerist, exploitative crapola system.
Anyhoo, time to haul butt off the computer and get the biggest kid to his (low-decile, underfunded) school. Then I'm off to yoga to try to stretch away the stresses this week has held. Then I'm gonna drink a pot of coffee with my friend Rachael and put the world to rights.
Posted on 14 February, 2006 | 6:57am | 4 comments |
new journal!
Monday 13 February, 2006
Here is the last collage in my 'old' journal. (I wish I had a scanner so I could copy images properly instead of having to take crappy photos of them.)
I finished a (paper) journal yesterday and began another one. The last one went from September 2004 until now - whew, what a crazy period of my life it has been.
I love 'moving in' to a new journal...putting the first tentative collage layers down, sticking in some inspiring pictures, writing my name at the front...it's like when I was a kid at school and got my stationary at the beginning of the year.
Each journal has a different flavour. The last one had a lot of writing about sleep...the lack of...insomnia...fantasising about getting lots of it. It also had a lot of thick and messy collages as I experimented with new techniques and tried to use less magazine cuttings and more of my own drawing, photography and vintage images. It's so thick I can't close it properly.
I'd like this new journal to contain more writing (poetry drafts, story ideas) than long ruminations about the hard bits of parenting. I'd like it to be tidier, less messy and chaotic. But I know it will end up reflecting my life in whatever guises it takes over the next year or so. And therein lies the beauty of it.
Posted on 13 February, 2006 | 7:13am | 1 comments |
buried treasure
Thursday 9 February, 2006
Sorry about the lack of entries this week. We are doing a site-redesign and changing providers etc and are experiencing some problems as a result.
I've been having dreams lately where I have long, long hair and HORNS! What is that about? I can't do much about growing horns, but I think I might grow my hair long for winter. Does it mean I'm stubborn (like a bull), HORNY? (ha ha) or maybe I need to be more devilish? I don't know if I believe that dreams mean much more than a series of interesting internal movies...but when you get a recurring image, it makes you wonder...
I'm watching the old 1980s BBC version of Evelyn Waugh's 'Brideshead Revisited' at the moment. I read that Hollywood is doing a movie version and (sort of like the Pride and Prejudice debate) loyal fans of the BBC version are up in arms, claiming that this version is the 'quintessential' one.
So far it is very English and posh and beautiful. Definitely worth a watch - and there is about 12 hours of it, too! My new favourite thing is watching TV series on DVD. You get to experience the drama as it was meant, without the constant jolting interuption of adverts every twelve minutes. And it is like watching a movie that goes for ten hours plus. Good for the winter nights to come.
Here is a quotation, from Brideshead:
"I want to bury something precious in every place I've ever been happy, so when I'm old and ugly and miserable I can return there, dig it up and remember."
I love that idea. (Although I intend to be beautiful and happy when I'm old, rather than miserable and ugly!)
Posted on 09 February, 2006 | 7:13am | 6 comments |
feel it
Tuesday 7 February, 2006
I so much admire people who can talk about their feelings and 'weaknesses' and vulnerabilities fearlessly and honestly. I strive to be this fearless, but in reality, I think I'm still holding so much back. I struggle with my own 'ugliness'. I worry that writing about it will make me seem 'mad' or unappealing. In short, I'm not there yet.
I get so much strength and inspiration from the blog-world. Long may it last.
Posted on 07 February, 2006 | 3:30pm | 3 comments |
flower photographs are boring (apparently)
Friday 3 February, 2006
I just got a book about photography-for-journaling out of the library. The (male) author wrote disparagingly about budding photographers who take endless photographs of flowers. "Seen one flower photograph, seen 'em all. Stop boring your friends with them" he said. I blushed hotly and to the roots of my hair when I read that. I LOVE taking photographs of flowers and plants! And I know I post them a lot on here. I felt discouraged for a while...then I opened some of my photo files, looked at my flower photos...I still love them. He is just one opinion. I'm not going to stop. (I hope you aren't too bored with flower photos.) Sometimes the best thing to do with advice in 'How To' books is to do the exact opposite of what they say! :)
Whew! It has been a huge week in the lives of my friends. I've had lots of long telephone conversations. In one week there has been:
-a birth
-a death
-the purchase of a first house
-one friend is newly and excitedly in love
-two dear friends have split up with each other :(
-one friend got married last week
-one friend discovered a COMPLETED book manuscript in her archives that she had totally forgotten about and is going to publish!
Yigh! Life is big. A week of intense emotions. I need a cup of tea.
Posted on 03 February, 2006 | 7:18am | 2 comments |
driving along in my automobile
Thursday 2 February, 2006
Update on New Year's Resolution #2 - Get Driving:
I have been out for a drive almost everyday and this week I have taken the boys out in the car TWICE without Fraser as a co-pilot/road-rules consultant. On one trip I struck busy lunchtime traffic and freaked out a bit, but I got us home safely...it just took a while for my hands to stop shaking.
I'm LOVING the feeling of taking off in the car.
My current driving fantasy, which I hope to be capable of before summer ends:
I'll take off in the car by myself, heading to the coast at dusk. I'll play the Throwing Muses 'The Real Ramona' album very loud - my favourite driving record. I'll get to the beach and run into the sea. I'll sit and watch a golden sunset with a rough wool blanket wrapped around me. Then I'll drive home in the dark...covered in sand and eating pineapple lumps the whole way.
I think I have an inner-hoon just bursting to get out.
Posted on 02 February, 2006 | 7:17am | 2 comments |
yummy yoga
Wednesday 1 February, 2006
These happy summer feet belong to me and Fraser. On our Sunday walk we lay under a willow tree beside the river for about half an hour. It felt like my best 2006 summer moment, so far.
I went to a new yoga class yesterday - my first for the year. It is with my favourite teacher, but a morning class. (I used to go to her evening class.)
It was so delightful! I was the youngest person by about 25 years, and the oldest person looked like she was at least 75, perhaps older. So, there I was, the only sandy-blonde amongst a ring of snowy-heads. Five things that made the class lovely were:
1) Eight of the old women were called Margaret (and apparently there are more Margarets, but they are still on holiday.)
2) The old ladies call each other 'Girls', as in "How are those backs, girls?" and "Hasn't the weather been glorious, girls?"
3) They were lovely and welcoming to me and called me 'Dear'.
4) A woman called Doris bought a box of beans and zucchini from her garden for everyone to help themselves to.
5) I'd forgotten how great my yoga teacher is. At key moments when I was feeling frustrated with how creaky and rusty my body was feeling, she said: "Accept yourself as you find yourself" and "Where thought goes, energy flows." I love all that hippy stuff.
Yoga (and yoghurt...AND yogis...AND Yoda) ROCK! I can't wait for next week.
Posted on 01 February, 2006 | 7:14am | 0 comments |
call for snail mail swaps!
Tuesday 31 January, 2006
One of my favourite features of my digital camera is the macro setting. I love to stick the camera down close to plant-life and click. Sometimes I get interesting shots like this one - it looks like this photo was taken in a desert or something. In fact, it was taken by the river. These daisies are amazing, though, how they grow in river sand amongst the hot stones. Now, that is tenacity!
*call for swaps*!
(NZers and Australians only please. The cost of posting things to Canada/USA is making me bankrupt!)
SWAP ONE:
If you are a soft toy maker/enthusiast, I have two very cute and at times, very weird 1970s soft toy pattern books up for grabs. The patterns go from the sublime: towelling bunnies, a giant snail floor cushion, cute big-headed dolls to the bizarre: 'hippy' rag dolls with 'stoned' eyes, naked 'Adam' and 'Eve' dolls and other weird 70s stuff like that.
So, if you're interested in swapping them for something, email me.
I'm pretty open to ideas for swap-stuff but here's some ideas: cute stationary, stickers, stripy socks, retro fabric, interesting op-shop scores, collage materials...etc...
SWAP TWO:
Is anyone interested in swapping packages of collage materials?
I can send you an A4 envelope chock-full of Asian tea wrappers, pretty papers, vintage greeting cards, interesting pictures and postcards, pages out of children's books etc etc etc...and you send me the same out of YOUR collage materials stash.
The thing with collage is that I do my best work when I'm surprised or excited about the materials and because I have drawers full of pages from the same books etc...I sometimes get a little 'over' the stuff I've gathered. Keep it fresh, I say!
So email me if you want to do a collage-materials swap.
SWAP THREE:
Is anyone out there doing the 1980s fashion renaissance? I have a pair of mint condition vintage 1980s bright red leather slouch ankle boots with a flat wedge heel. The tag on them says 9.5, but they just fit me and I'm between a 8.5 to 9. I'll post a photo later when I get a bit more organised.
They were one of those op shop finds that you just have to snap up because they are so perfect and beautiful, but every time I put them on I freak out and feel really old, because when I was 12 in 1984 I had the same boots except my first pair were grey suede and I can't cope with the time-warp thing. Wearing them makes me feel like I'm back at intermediate.
Anyway, I know someone out there would love them to death. If that person it you - email me with your swap proposal. I'm a whore for snail mail so am unlikely to refuse an offer :)
Oooh...I'm so excited!
Posted on 31 January, 2006 | 6:46am | 2 comments |