bits and bobbins

sorry for the relative radio silence ’round these parts of late.

bebe royal, while growing like a weed, has also decided to sit in my belly the wrong way around (aka, breech). fun times. so lately, i’ve been running around town, trying everything, hoping i can figure out how to convince her to do the right thing between now and b-day (which is approximately 6 weeks away atm, give or take a couple weeks of course).

wish us all luck…hopefully she’ll eventually cooperate! as one might expect, this recent turn of events (pun sort of intended) has been dominating my thoughts lately. if you’ve got any tricks or advice on flipping babies or personal stories that might give me and the hubs hope for her doing a somersault into the head-down position randomly, please pipe up! good vibes/prayers/virtual demands that encourage baby flipping are always welcome as well.

other things i have been liking and thinking about (when not thinking about the baby, ha!):

-on the fashion tip, i have been kind of/really obsessed with ankle-strap sandals/flats, like these, these and these. and i’m still coveting these.

-i love my husband’s tumblr blog. he always posts cool little links to this or that. he’s a software developer/architect…so some of what he links to has to do with that, but mostly it’s just random stuff and i think it gives the world a sense of his (slightly warped but awesome) sense of humor and brilliant mind. a lot of the stuff there is the links we send back and forth to one another during the day: funny, interesting, weird and serious links and whatevers. (we’re total info junkies/huge nerds.)

-i am busy with some freelance work at the moment, and i don’t have a lot of time before the bebe arrives, but i totally wish i had time to make a log cabin knitted blanket for her. who knows, maybe i’ll find the time. or maybe i’ll get around to it someday? or never? either way i think it’s cute as heck. ha.

-one of my secret cravings during this pregnancy has been carrot cake. MMM. this carrot cake recipe is for me, drool-inducing.

-hey, all, thanks for chiming in last week with your suggestions for smart fashion blogs! you rock. one of my favorite suggestions of the bunch (and wow, they were ALL so good!) is the oh-so relevant retail recovery. i love how it’s author asks thought-provoking questions at the end of each of her entries. fashion mission astutely describes said blog, saying this (which seems to be right on):

retail recovery [is] a blog about slowing down and thinking about personal style, what inspires you, identifying style and taste and preferences, recognizing when you’re manipulated, challenged and stimulated by fashion.

if only EVEN MORE blogs that dealt with fashion did the same or similar…wow!

style *can* (and should, imo) have substance.

-will fast fashion retailers, with their low-prices and high-style-turnover, ultimately be the ones to benefit from the current economic downturn? writer diana zlomislic of the star thinks so.

how does this need for and continued demand for cheaper threads from consumers in the west mesh/face off against the increased awareness of and call for ethics in the world of fashion (referring to sustainability, ethical treatment and pay of workers in the developing nations where much of this ‘fast fashion’ is produced)?

on a related note, did you know that, overall, clothing is cheaper now than it used to be (accounting, of course, for inflation)? (via the new york times)

-seems sort of like old news to me…but apparently more and more folks are choosing to buy their fashion online. so says the indepentent, anyway. i’ve been shopping online for years and years…it’s just so easy, especially for hard to find items. i started doing so when i lived in the cultural and retail wasteland of north florida many, many years ago, in order to find interesting clothing and accessories, and haven’t stopped. and it’s great, because there’s so much more out there now to be had via the web. there are cons, but overall, it’s one of my preferred ways of shopping, given a choice.

how much would you say you shop online? more than you used to, or less than you used to? or, do you prefer to do your shopping in person, so you can see, touch, and sense the quality of the goods?

what would you say are the advantages and/or disadvantages of each style of shopping?

do you think that more online shopping by more people is the wave of the future? will we eventually do all or most of our shopping via the web?

-you know i like to often bring up the notion of living with less (for no other reason, maybe, than to remind *myself* to do so!)…

on that note, see this article from time: how to live with just 100 things.

how do you corral and organize your stuff? or, conversely, do you just let it all be clutter? be honest!

do you try to consciously curb what you buy? if so, how? or do you just spend with abandon and cull out stuff later when it all gets to be too much? (this isn’t really about the fact that you can’t spend…but that you’re choosing not to spend or spending more carefully…)

has all this talk in the media and the rising trend of people claiming and showing that they are trying to live with less impacted or inspired you in any way?

since we’re talking about stuff…and you:
do check out nubby twiglet’s recent treatise, does your stuff define who you are?
well, does it? what say ye?

the quick and dirty:

-remember me mentioning in last week’s quick and dirty that it might be cool to make a mini god’s eye and wear it as jewelry? apparently i was psychic! readymade magazine posted a DIY how-to last friday in their blog on how to make mini god’s eye jewelry! ha.

-check out this etsy video covering the in’s and out’s of stencil printing, featuring printmaker/designer lotta jansdotter. (via craft:)

-do you like african wax print fabrics, too? find more here, @ ananse village.

-make some eyeglass pins! (via indie fixx)

-more from indie fixx: their guest blogger jessica gonacha covers the subject of greener screenprinting.

-i still have berets on the brain! check out THIS super cute puff stitch crocheted beret pattern from her name was greta.

-lemon tree tales has a fab post on sewing room ergonomics. lesson: you don’t have to break your back to make your duds (and other goodies)! i’m looking at you, people who cut out patterns on the floor! it’s bad, bad, BAD (for you!)!

it’s been a while since i have done any book reviews! but a motherload of cool books as fallen into my lap (ouch!) lately, and i’m so enamored with these tomes, i feel like i have to show them off and share what i think is great about them. so be on the look out for some reviewed by me, for you! posts in the coming weeks, as i have time to make them. a peek at the books i am planning to give an overview on is here:

whee!

several weeks back, i got my hands on a super cool little jewelry-making title entitled junk jewelry, by jane eldershaw. ms. eldershaw, a jewelry designer who has worked for australian vogue, the new york post, and new woman magazine.

junk jewelry, in the simplest terms, is about elevating everyday or ordinary objects to the level of art, fashioning artistic jewelry, and then daring to wear said jewelry in an inspiring way on one’s own body. not everyone will take a shine to making or wearing junk or trash-to-treasure jewels…but this book celebrates and inspires those who do. it’s a positively sound little jewelry making book that differs from the typical jewelry-making book in a number of areas…particularly in its overall philosophy, approach, and execution…as i’ll detail some below.

from the outset of her book, jane aims to educate, not just inspire. it’s not merely a book with projects and pandering explanations…it’s jam-packed with tons of food-for-thought and information from the get-go that go beyond the basics…it’s really a course on art, art-making, and style.

junk jewelry is broken up into four parts. part one deals with the historic origins of junk jewelry, giving the reader and budding jewelry-maker/designer a little education on the trash-to-treasure movement, informing the reader on notable art trends that inspired and birthed a rage for junk/offbeat jewelry, particularly the dada and surrealist movements (many of the artists in said movements actually dabbled at jewelry design).

jane also highlights a litany of iconic fashion and accessory designers of past and present who used junk to great effect when creating their jewels, including elsa schiaparelli, karl lagerfeld, moschino, coco chanel, paul smith…and many more.

part two is all about the conceptualizing process. jane shows the reader how to think like an artist, and illustrates a myriad of artistic techniques, all to get the reader/budding designer’s mind spinning. some of jane’s suggested artistic techniques that i really adore and find really inspiring include “elevating the mundane to art status by isolating it” and “for unity, group by color shape or texture”.

the third part of the book is the creating section…it’s the part with all the projects. most of the projects jane has in the book are simple and spare in appearance, a tactic i think is really a great move, design-wise. showing off simple projects makes for easy completion, which is of course gratifying for beginners and appealing to minimalists, but i feel like keeping the projects and photography of said projects simple also looks visually clean, and gives those who desire the moremoremore a clear, inspirational jumping off-point for their own, more chaotic, or daring designs. said folks can look at a simple project or nicely shot photo and easily see where they’d care to add this or that, i.e., how they’d change the project to add their own idiosyncratic flair.

seen here is a peek at a few of the projects from the book that i particularly took a shine to:

the last bit of the book focuses on the wearing of junk jewelry…it’s a little primer on the art of wearing your quirky baubles (handmade by you, or otherwise) with panache and attitude. here, jane touches on sound accessory and clothing styling principles that range from donning your jewels with an eye and mind for “suitability”, focusing on a “focal point”, or dressing around a “theme” (and several more, natch). said suggestions are so strong, they move beyond the styling of junk jewelry…they find relevance and context in the styling of oneself in general.

lastly..

i feel compelled to mention a nice bonus feature of junk jewelry that metaphorically speaks volumes about the book as a whole: from front to back/cover to cover, the book is peppered with great quotes, hand-selected by jane, that touch on art and art-making, as well as fashion, implying there is a strong thread between the two, a notion i wholeheartedly support and share. this implied relationship between art and fashion as seen in her book is, i’d guess, a reflection of what jane’s ethos just might be…that making (junk) jewelry, and the results of said making, are not just fashion, they can also be art. in this book, she’s not just showing you how to make jewelry or follow instructions on a project…she’s giving you the tools to be artistic, *and* stylish, too. all in all, very, VERY cool.

bravo, jane!

also, for more smart junk jewelry-related goodness, check out jane’s blog…