In awe…360 days of The Uniform Project

must. watch. now.

Uniform Project Picture Book from The Uniform Project on Vimeo.

360 days of Sheena’s adventure with The Uniform Project. So inspiring. Please watch!

sunday links

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was relaxing and pretty great. I have been enjoying the rain in LA, but it was nice that it let up for a bit so that we could go to Runyon Canyon a couple of times. I’ve been online way too much lately, so here are some links:

I would love to run a franchise of this store in Los Angeles.

Ever wonder how to reuse old toilet paper rolls and other items?

Weirdest sculpture of Lincoln ever.

Read to help Haiti.

Gorgeous wedding dress.

Long vehicle? =) Love it.

iPhone, making everything in life easier–including taxes. (thanks Ting’s mom!)

Very excited for the blank Kokeshi doll I received in the mail this weekend.

Good gift idea.

A random guy I met in the Kaiser biolab was laid off from LAUSD and started this company. Awesome.

Really, H & M?

Probably the best Save the Date ever.

The Spice Station in Silverlake is wonderful. I bought truffle salt.

Dan and I hit up a wine tasting at Silverlake Wine. Highly recommended.

Finally made it out to Reform School. I love that store and the website is pretty great too.

Enjoy!

Nick Cave’s Soundsuits at the Fowler

I am still obsessing over an exhibition Dan and I saw last weekend. A colleague of mine at KCRW invited us to the opening of the exhibition Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. The exhibition is absolutely fantastic. Chicago-based artist Nick Cave has been creating wearable sculptures that he calls Soundsuits since 1992. The pieces can stand alone in a gallery and look stunning but are also meant to be worn and danced in. The Fowler’s exhibit showcases 35 of Cave’s Soundsuits and shows a rolling video of the works in action.

The Soundsuits are multimedia pieces made from items Cave has scavenged from flea markets, thrift stores, and garage sales over the past two decades (no wonder I like them!). I was blown away by all of the bead work, textiles, and crochet work included in the pieces. One of Cave’s philosophies is that his creations have been works in progress for centuries since all of the materials have been made by other people from other times and other places. He wants to showcase all of the craftsmanship of these unknown people together in a new, artistic, and fuctional garment. I love that. Click here and here to view a couple of videos of the dancing Soundsuits.

This exhibition is really a must-see. Or, if you don’t have time to swing by the Fowler, a small selection of Soundsuits are on display in the Neiman Marcus windows in Beverly Hills. Or, see both!

Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth
Fowler Museum at UCLA
Through May 30, 2010

sewing inspiration

I have been sewing up a storm lately. I promise that I will post some of my latest projects sometime soon. For now, here are a few of the things that have been inspiring me lately…

LA-based fashion designer Jasmin Shokrian

Fujimori’s Treehouses

Maira Kalman

"His first thought on getting out of bed—if he had any thought at all–was to get back in again."

Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire sketches cityscapes by memory

My little sister. She ran a marathon last weekend and I am very proud of her.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

A little bit of green for your day…

(via Apartment Therapy)

(via Apartment Therapy)

(via Craftzine Blog)

=)

Happy Tuesday. I’m off to drink a Guinness with the gals.

what i did today instead of sewing…

Some days it is just hard to sit down at the sewing machine. I thought I would post some of the other things that I did instead of sewing (like I said I would in my 12:30 post). It was a good day.

I finally created the frame collage on my living room wall…

I actually finished these pillows last week, but I think they weren’t really finished until I sat them on my favorite piece of furniture (my IKEA Stockholm chair–I bought it for $100 off of craigslist recently) and accented them with Michael’s abandoned mandolin. I really like these pillows and I think they are a good show of what my future pillow collection will look like. The lace accent on them is from vintage curtains I bought for a dollar at a garage sale last month and I love them. I will be so sad when I use the last bit of that lace.

I hung this painting that my mom painted for me. This is the third apartment that it has hung in and I love knowing that it will hang everywhere I ever live. I think it is so beautiful. I think my mom really underestimates what an amazing artist she is.

I framed this photo that I took. On President’s Day, a few of us got together and, through an exhausting process of picking ideas of “something new to do” out of a hat, finally decided on “Go on a photo expedition, take a photo, frame it, and hang it in your house”. Voila! When the cherry trees bloom in Fresno it is just so beautiful. I completely took them for granted when I lived there but can’t help but admire them every spring when I go home. That is why I took this picture. That color is just wonderful.

And I made lunch for the next few days. At first I made a parsley/spinach pesto with some of the greens from the CSA. It was a pretty strong flavor and it took a lot of improvisation to tone the flavor down, but in the end, I created a pretty delicious pesto-cream sauce with peas, onions, collard greens, and chicken over whole wheat spaghetti.

I love days like today.

“John is not really dull” and other New Deal posters

I am in love with these state-sponsored art posters created by the Federal Art Project under FDR’s New Deal. I love the idea that art was so heavily supported by the government and was used as a tool to promote such simple government virtues of the day. It has been about 75 years since the New Deal and our country is back to a familiar position. I wish that the government would think again of creating clever job opportunities for unemployed artists to take part in the revitalization of America. Readymade has a great post that includes some artists’ reimaginings of these classic posters.

=)

a busy saturday…

I am finally relaxing on my couch after a long and fun day filled with cooking, garage sale-ing, cleaning, organizing, gym-ing, painting, and lots of decorating and redecorating. Thinking back on it, this was a looonnnngggg day.

The best part by far was the garage sale-ing. I mapped out my route last night from craigslist postings. I was out the door at about 8:30 this morning and hit up six garage sales by noon. I had so much fun. The first sale I went to had two little girls that were really excited about showing me all of their favorite items that I should buy. The eight year old actually convinced me to buy her two favorite books Fever and Eggs. I might actually read them –she was just so cute and excited. I also bought an easel, a framed owl print, and some metal pots. The second sale I went to I was bombarded by four little kids who couldn’t wait to sell me the lemonade and cookies they had made. It reminded me so much of my childhood and our cul de sac – wide garage sales and how my sisters and I were always so excited to set up our lemonade and donut stand. I really loved drinking those kids’ really sugary, really mouth-staining red lemonade. It warmed my heart. I found really awesome things at every other sale I hit too. Here are my highlights:

1. painted wooden egg and stand

2. old books!

3. the best old book =)

4. awesome dress

5. best framed picture

6. king kong framed poster for $10!

7. old prints

8. and some of my purchases already incorporated into my decor…

Man, I had so much fun getting all of this fun stuff this morning. I love garage sales!