Just Playing

Whoa!  Heady few days.  I've been working on a few projects, and I'll try to get pictures taken and post them here.  The girls were back at school this week, and we've been taking full advantage of the gorgeous weather.  So things have been a whirlwind.  A self-imposed, domestic, wonderful whirlwind, but without much time for reflection.

Anyway, I have been giving some thought to this whole Upcycle thing (thank you for the amazingly supportive comments, by the way.  And of course, for the new machine!).  I think I'm not quite totally 100% ready to dive into the whole business thing.  I'm dipping my toes in.  I'm playing, pretending, dreaming, experimenting.  After all, I do have this whole other full-time job, and kids, and a busy social life, and a garden, and a body that needs to walk and run and stretch now and then.  Though, to be honest, the thing I want to do most, every day, is sit at my sewing machine.  It's become a bit of an obsession.

I'm trying to respect these impulses, then, by imagining where they might take me.  And though I'm not ready to start it yet, if I was going to start a business--which I'm tentatively calling JDS Upcycle--it might look something like this:

I envision a business in which you could bring in good, serviceable clothing, material, or linens, and JDS would turn that clothing into even better clothing or gifts.  The idea is not so much to make clothes from scratch, though JDS could do some of that, or to do alterations, though JDS would certainly alter clothes!  Rather, it would be to take clothes that sit in the back of your closet because they don't fit quite right, or have sentimental value but aren't stylish anymore, or they just need an update, and to turn that clothing into something you want to wear first, something you can't wait to take off the hanger.  So, the idea is not to recycle clothes, but to upcycle them:  to take something that was on its way to a thrift store or the trash can, and to make it something you really want to wear, something that could have come out of Anthropologie or a boutique. 

The idea behind upcycling comes from a book called Cradle to Cradle, which suggests we should no longer design things so that they can be recycled, but rather design things that can be upcycled, that become better as their design life unfolds.  JDS adapts this idea by suggesting that, rather than constantly cycling clothes in and out of our closets, we can look good by remaking the clothes we have in some simple ways.


Okay.  That was hard to write.  Lots of doubts and self-talk coming at me every moment there (like, who am I to say what's fashionable?  What if I mess someone's clothes up?  What if someone doesn't like Antrhopologie?  For Heaven's sake.  I'm just pretending.  I'm just playing.)

I'm just playing.  Give me a break already (not you, TS readers.  Me.  Ima gonna give myself a break.  Right now).

Best Evaluation Comment Ever

I finally got my student evaluations back from the "Introduction to Film Studies" class I taught this spring.  It's a really fun class to teach, and is finally developed enough that it runs pretty well on its own, so that I can try some risky things in it--like getting the students to do improv games at the beginning of every class, or having them make their own student films--without things getting too out of hand.  What I'm saying is there's a good underlying structure there, so I can flip some gravy all over the top without the whole thing turning to mush.

Of course, it's a film class, so most students sign up thinking they're going to just "watch movies" all semester.  They're graduating seniors, and so when they find out there's a bunch of reading and writing involved, they're inclined to complain a bit.  So, my evaluations usually look something like this: "This was a fun class, I learned a lot, but there was too much work, and please don't make us watch 8 1/2 ever again."  For me, this confirms I'm doing my job.  I'm challenging them but keeping them engaged.

There is the occasional angry or angsty eval, of course ("please don't show movies that offend people").  Much more interesting, however, is when I get evals that don't seem to be for my course ("the equations in this class were really difficult to solve") or are about me personally ("I really like that cute skirt you wore, with the flowers, but your voice is really annoying").

Best of all, I think, is this comment, just received on the most recent round of evals.  It's in the hall of fame, for sure:

This class was one big funky medicine ball from outer space. Word to your mutha!

Amen to that, my friend.  Amen to that.  If that doesn't get me tenure, I don't know what will.

Messages from the Universe (Really)

The universe emailed me this morning (did you get yours?), and this is what it said:

The baby steps in the beginning of a journey, Jen, always seem inadequate compared to the brilliance of the dream that inspired them. This is natural. If the dream wasn't so far "out there" and dazzling, it wouldn't be worth dreaming! Just don't be led to think that the physical ground you cover with your baby steps is all that they accomplish. Because for every mortal step you take, another cog in a giant wheel behind the curtains of time and space advances, and with it, 10,000 new possibilities.

Better than Star Trek,
    The Universe
 

Coincidence?  I think not!  I mean, if this guy can make a sweet living sending out emails from the universe, why can't I make some spare change refashioning people's clothing?  I mean, WHY NOT?

Mission and vision statement to come.  And my brother just put my brand new, electronic, hot-dang, bells-and-whistles sewing machine in the mail, courtesy of my Dad, on its way to me.  What could be better than that?

Grosgrain Giveaway

Well, aren't these the prettiest dresses.  Maybe I will be able to make one when my NEW SEWING MACHINE arrives!!!  WhEEEEEEEee!

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway...

Maybe Kinda Sorta

I'm taking another class at unchurch, this one called "Breakthroughs."  There's some cheesy parts to it (like, at the beginning, we all stand up, our hands in the air, and yell things like "I AM the breakthrough."  Lord.  It's almost too much to take.  But I suspend my cynicism, I suspend it, because the whole fucking class WORKS). 

Anyway, I didn't really have a "breakthrough" I was trying to achieve or anything--I just really like taking classes there.  I feel better generally, and learn tons and tons.

Except, now I am having a breakthrough.  Maybe.  But I'm kind of scared to talk about it.  Can I let it tentatively leak here?  Will you promise not to laugh?  Because, the thing is, I've been given permission to have my breakthrough look sort of ugly and funny at first.  I've been given permission to make lots of mistakes, but to be bold anyway.

So...my breakthrough is that I might, kind of, sort of, want to do something with this whole sewing thing.

(Yikes!  Did that make it real?  Or did I hedge enough so that I don't really have to commit yet?).

I don't know if I want it to be a business, or what.  But last week's class was about putting down some "action items" for achieving our dream (which I'm only barely acknowledging, see?).  And one of my action items was that I really need a new sewing machine and the universe should deliver me one.  And also I need some sewing classes so I can master some harder things.  And maybe write a vision and mission for this, this thing that is a tiny little speck of a germ in my brain.

I mean, you've seen some of the stuff I've been doing.  It's ugly, like birthing baby animals or something, all covered in goop and hay.  But I see things there, like things that could be real at some point.  Things I think could be beautiful.  Like, I could see taking people's clothes they think they don't want anymore and remaking them into something they would want to wear again, that's personal and unique and that doesn't send stuff to the landfill or the thrift store, you know?  I can see things built from things that would otherwise be trash, but now are art, or of use.  You know? 

Upcycling.  That's what I'm talking about.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Mission and vision come later in the week.

For NOW the news is this:  a new sewing machine IS on its way to me (thank you, thank you, J.B.!).  There are sewing classes at the fabric store near me, for $1.00, starting in July.  Miracles!  And I'll post a vision and mission here for vetting in the coming days, okay?

Okay?

Bravo Grande

Please forgive this post.  It contains more juvenile references to balls.  We can't seem to help ourselves.

Some great friends of ours gave Addie Sea Monkeys for her birthday a few months back.  In case you don't know (I didn't) sea monkeys are basically brine shrimp, which you can grow from dry eggs in a miniature aquarium.  They are very tiny at first--you need to use a magnifying glass to see them--but they quickly grow to be the size of, oh, I don't know, cut fingernails (ew).  Addie was very excited about the whole process:  the sterilization of the water, the growing of the eggs, the feeding of the shrimp.  She would frequently monitor the progress of the shrimp throughout the day.

Of course, Addie has spaghetti arms like her mama (and is about as graceful) and so accidentally knocked our new sea monkey friends all over the floor one morning.  Big, big tears.  Like good, dutiful, indulgent parents, we ordered her another packet of the monkeys.

Everything has gone swimmingly so far.  Except, unlike the first batch, the second batch contained one particularly ambitious little shrimp, who is now a big shrimp, because he ate all of his little brine shrimp buddies.  So, instead of sea monkeys, we have sea monkey.  Introducing, Grande:



It's not easy to photograph a floating clipped fingernail, by the way.  Kudos to Eric for capturing this shot of Grande, in all of his briny glory.

What you probably can't see is that Grande is distinguished not just by his size and appetite but by the fact that he appears to have a sizable, remarkable, slightly revolting set of cojones.  Balls.  Brine shrimp nuggets.  Meat sacks.

I mean, we know they're probably not balls.  What would a brine shrimp do with balls?  Maybe they're fins, or nubbins that will someday grow into legs (yay, evolution!).  Or decorative nodules.  But, to us, they look like balls.

In any case, let this be an introduction to our newest family member.  Eric is particularly excited you're here, little buddy, as now there is another male (we think) in the house.  Welcome, Grande.

RAGBALLS! and Rain

It's the last day the girls are home before summer camp begins.  Addie will be in the kindergarten room and Nolie in preschool, starting tomorrow.  And I'll be back at work.

It's raining today, and tomorrow is supposed to be downright cold, with a high maybe topping out at 60, but probably not.  The bunnies and gardens and trees are loving it:

Can you see the little guy in there, chomping on my flowers?



Lonely soccer ball.  Wanting to be kicked.  But I can't seem to get the girls out of their jammies this morning.  It smells like pancakes and syrup and coffee in the house, and the girls are hunkered down in their "fort"--the crawlspace under the stairs--having adventures.  I've decided not to disturb them. 

For my part, I'm experimenting with some woven/tied structures, inspired by a book I picked up at the library, Three-Dimensional Embroidery.  I know, the title is super-boring.  But I think the work in there is gorgeous.  Lots of fabric and wire and strange, nature-inspired shapes.  I'm practicing building some little fabric nests.  This is not a great picture, but it's little ragballs (Eric and I have had a field day joking about ragballs, believe me) tied together with wire:



I've hung this one on the wall, so you have to imagine it as sort of bowl shaped, rather than 2-dimensional, like it looks here.  It's about the size of a cereal bowl.

Here's the next one, done by winding jute with scraps and thread:



I think it will be bigger, like a big bowl.  Then I'm going to work on some irregular stuff.  Just playing.  But be careful if you come over here.  If you sit still long enough, you'll leave with applique or ragballs affixed to some part of your person.