Found: Crocheted Lace Ruffled Sleeve Cap

Had this been 1986 a line would have been crossed. Too much fullness added here, and this sweater would have skipped right from “sweet” to “cute.” (Hint: Sweet is okay, but isn’t it hard enough to be taken seriously without someone wanting to pinch your cheeks?) For so many reasons, luckily this is not 1986 and this sleeve cap is inspiring. If the fit were as spot-on as the styling it would be a winner, but the sleeves are out of proportion to the body causing them to pull and tear at the armpits. 

Found at the Goodwill Outlet warehouse --where you pay by the pound! The tag says Absolutely Creative Worldwide. 

Repurposing ideas anyone? 

This gorgeous image has me thinking head wrap, or it could turn into a child’s dress that would go with this shoot. What else?

Found: Wood Hangers

For your consideration, the lowly hanger. 

The vast majority of the hangers in my childhood closet were the wire kind that come from dry cleaners, though we rarely if ever used a dry cleaner. How did they appear in our closets? 

The few exceptions to the ubiquitous wire work horse came as accidents from the closets of cousins and friends-of-friends in black plastic bags of hand me downs, and I guarded them fondly. I was interested in clothes, which meant I was interested in closets, and every magazine article book chapter on closet organization tells you on no uncertain terms that your hangers should match, and they should not be the wire kind. Those are only good for wreath crafts and fishing goop out of the bathroom drain. So I treasured the mismatched plastic hangers. If they couldn't match at least they could be plastic. 

Now I am an adult and my hangers have matched for at least 15 years, but I have an itch to change that. I am sad about how many wood hangers I have passed on, because I wish all my clothes were dangling from cellulose. 

Wood hangers are sculpture at its functional best. The history intrigues me. 

Who decided on the essential message passed to clients via text on hangers? How was the type chosen, and whether to notch the ends or not? I love the wood grain, the weathering, the dents and dings. I find them in yard sales, junk shops, and the Goodwill Outlet. 
Give me interesting over matching any day.   

Found: The Secret Hiding Place

Don't you just love old books- the sueded pages, the old paper-and glue-scent, the dust jackets crumbling into that which they are supposed to protect the book from?

I found this gem at the Goodwill Outlet. It's a cute story about a little hippo who is deeply doted on, but needs some autonomy: A place to be alone, but not too alone.
Look at the lovely flocks of birds in the above illustration, and Little Hippo's joy as he realizes he has found his place, because the big hippos will never look up!

The line quality is luscious, and look at the peeved look on the older hippos face as he wonders where Little Hippo's been hiding himself. I love the chameleon's smirk, and the the happy, contemplative gaze of Little Hippo.

The true genius is when the ink drawings are layered on top of these loose little rainbow-colored watercolors. They make me think that writer and illustrator Rainey Bennett is full of the kind of gold coin showers that are mixed with sunshine and rainbows aplenty.

Lace Coverup to Lace Tank

When 2 pool coverups jumped into my Goodwill basket the lady who checked me out asked me why I needed what was essentially 2 of the same garment, and I had no idea. This was several years ago. Lace hadn't made a big recurrence yet, but I just had a feeling. A feeling that turned out to be completely justified, but then I didn't have time to do anything with them because I was having babies. And now I am not having babies, so I get to sew every once in a while.

 

There really isn't much to say about it, this was the easiest project: Just chop and hem. Boom. A lace top to layer, a nice addition to the momiform!

Feathery Finds

Thacia comes home with fists full of rocks, sticks, and feathers.

  

 Daniel calls it a two year old thing. 

 

He should consider the fair chance it's a my-daughter thing. 

 

I certainly never grew out of it!

Found: Holey Rock

Ten Things You Can Make With a Rock With a Hole In It:

1. necklace pendant,
2. pony tail holder with elastic,
3. mobile with other natural or found objects,
4. keychain fob,
5. knob for something special (with a screw threading the hole),
6. bolo tie slide,
7. light pull,
8. fastener for bag or coat,
9. clapper for a coconut bell,
10. thread through a shoe lace to differentiate left from right

The challenge to myself was ten good things. I can think of more, but they kind of started wandering into the "What Would Martha Do?" catagory. Now what are the ten dumbest applications? 

I'll start us off:

1. cocktail ring... for a baby

Found: Hand Embroidered Fantasy Linens

Pretend with me for a moment that it is Friday, because my mother has found something truly fantastic! Linens!

My mother found them in an estate sale and rightly snatched them up. They are priceless, or at least I could never afford them. To the best I can tell these are hand appliqued and embroidered including the cut work. The bouillon stitches are tiny and perfect.

Am I right in saying most of us would settle for having accomplished one of these exquisite ships in our lifetime? Well, there are 5 different kinds.

All 5 appear on the runner. 2 apiece show up on each napkin. Two. And there are 15 napkins.

That's 35 tiny, perfect ships. And that doesn't even count...

the sea monsters! This is just one, but there are just as many monsters. Doesn't it look like Narnia? My mother believes they are not, in fact, of Narnian origin, but that they are from the Netherlands.

Which is pretty cool too. The only problem is that I can never ever ever use them except when serving extremely dry bread and water lest any one of the 15 napkins get their first stain. So I'll have to stick with the napkins I embroidered a few years ago.

Found: More Ideas Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Ideas are something I rarely run out of, but there is always the chance, which is why I write down random challenges for myself just in case. This is a way I can show up in dry moments. I sometimes also just try to grit it out and finish things I have started to try to get some momentum.
How about you? What do you do when you are out of inspiration?

1. Be inspired by a flower.
2. Make something “childish” for an adult.
3. Update an idea from an old magazine.
4. Focus on texture.
5. Reference a trend.
6. Make a vessel.
7. Let art or architecture inspire you.
8. Focus on a silhouette.
9. Use a blogger’s diy instructions and make it your own.
10. Learn to like a color you hate.
11. Reference music or literature.
12. Bead it.
13. Design album cover art for a band.
14. Hail a hero.
15. Try plaid.
16. Knit it.
17. Let an instrument inspire you.
18. Make something for someone famous.
19. Make something red.
20. Copy something from the runway your own way.
21. Embroider it.
22. Consult someone who inspires you.
23. Use applique.
24. Design something practical based on album cover art.
25. Give it too much of something!
26. What would (insert cartoon character’s name here) do?
27. Use a national flag (respectfully).
28. Embroider doodles or a pattern.
29. Use a photo as inspiration.
30. Use the reverse side.
31. Transform something ugly.
32. Mix and match your favorite (fill in the blank) from the past with your current favorite (fill in the blank).
33. Incorporate words.
34. Incorporate bones.
35. Incorporate origami.
36. Incorporate wire.
37. Make it mosaic-style.
38. Create something for the garden.
39. Transform a light fixture.
40. Make a self-portrait.
41. Consult an old scout manual.
42. Finish a quilt your own way.
43. Cut into something nice– make it count!
44. Make an exotic article of clothing your own.
45. Use couture techniques on a humble item.
46. Challenge yourself in time, materials, budget, or technique.
47. Draw on it.
48. Use a cut-out technique of some sort.
49. Make it for free.
50. Make something costumey/dramatic for every day.
51. Take something that isn’t your style and transform it.
52. Reference a sport.
53. Alter your fabric.
54. Illustrate a poem.
55. Make something to sit on.
56. Use pleats.
57. Give it a great pocket.
58. Use your favorite children’s book as a starting place.
59. Set a time limit.
60. Make something holiday inspired.
61. Use a special surprising detail.
62. Finish an old project: figure out why you lost interest and change it!
63. Choose a Harris Burdick illustration that inspires you.
64. Make a calendar for next year.
65. Make neon tasteful.
66. Try papier mache.
67. Scrunch and pin a piece of fabric to an interesting shape. Make a sketch and item based on it.
68. Capture the essence of a loved-one.
69. Make a Rorshacht ink blot and incorporate it into your next project.
70. Choose a geometric shape and make something with only that shape.
71. Make something in your pet’s style– but for a human.
72. Make something tiny.
73. Make something oversized.
74. Research another culture’s toys.
75. Mix things that don’t go together and make them irresistible!
76. Choose a secret destination and have a friend choose a profession. Make something your character will need to take with them.
77. Use the random Google or Wiki button to find an idea.
78. Start that involved project you’ve been mulling over.
79. Make something for a baby.
80. Make something for charity.
81. Use paper.
82. Make something that is essential to the next season.
83. Choose a major life-event to make something for (coming of age, golden anniversary, wedding, empty nest, etc.).
84. Create something for a Youtube star.
85. Refinish it.
86. Learn a new technique.
87. Use piecing.
88. Reference a hobby.
89. Decorate a rock.
90. Copy someone’s technique on your own favorite subject.
91. Use an interesting detail for your own unique application.
92. Make a mobile.
93. Do something that makes your heart sing!
94. Use geometrics.
95. Be inspired by a letter.
96. Make something for your favorite movie character.
97. Commemorate someone special who has passed away.
98. Dance today, work tomorrow.
99. Make neckwear.
100. Design a visual pattern and use it on something.
101. Crack a visual joke.
102. Try out someone else’s design philosophy.
103. Make a favorite childhood craft.
104. Try a new color combination.
105. Capture the essence of a favorite song.
106. Build a better mousetrap, or whatever it is that’s making you crazy!
107. Make a hat.
108. Add a zipper. Be clever.
109. Try reverse applique.
110. Make an unlikely time-capsule.
111. Use lace.
112. Pick something from Threads (or another) Magazine and try it.
113. Trade abandoned projects with a friend and finish with freedom!
114. Use a found object.
115. Get inspired by a kitchen implement.
116. Adapt something from another time period.
117. Throw out a project you hate. Yeah. Doesn’t that feel good?

Found Stuff Friday: The Egg Rock

Four months, one infant, and a few crises later, trying to think of a great come-back post feels intimidating.

This limestone rock is
reassuringly real
curiously round
austerely beautiful
weighty in the palm
impervious to my aspirations
and tendencies to put too much pressure
on simple moments.

Hello friends.

Found (Even Though It's Saturday): Small Stories

I got my new camera! This evening I tested it out. These are locals in downtown San Antonio. I love the opportunity that photography gives to be a fly on the wall and make up your own narratives and really notice what you might just normally see. 

Found: Lead Paint

I figured I'd just prime and paint the living room window frame when I was redoing the kitchen cabinets: A fine example of home renovator's While We're At It Syndrome. First, though, there was some peeling paint, so I pulled out the ol' paint stripper and rubber gloves and got to work. The paint beneath the layers of white was strangely crumbly in gorgeous layers of peacock blue and jade.

So while we were at it we had to pry the window frame out of the stone wall... which cracked the plaster in the living room.

The upside? I don't think it's going to freeze again since this last cold weather, and I passionately love the raw stone underneath.

Wood Textures

Found Stuff Friday: Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk, Your Elusive Creative Genius

I am indebted to my dear friend Stephen for making me aware of this brilliant talk from the recent TED Conference by Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat Pray Love. This talk has proved very influential to me. 

She addresses the debilitating psychological stress caused by the way we look at creativity and talent in western culture.

You've probably felt it too: Fear and uncertainty, periods of feverish yet fruitless work, depression, the self-defeating cycle of not finishing (or starting!) things lest you fail... I've felt it anyway.

Elizabeth Gilbert's solution borrowed from other cultures, is to make a distinction between the person creating and the gift of the creation and inspiration. I know from experience that this works, although I forget at times.

In design school there was a terrible pressure to succeed that showed, often, in how terrified the more driven of us were of others, and the despair a little healthy opposition brought. The terror looked like hauteur or contempt, because that's how scared we were. Without a doubt, the talent was intense, but there is so much urgency to be a huge success when you are young. There is no "if at first you don't succeed try, try again." It's sink or swim.

I hope I am learning to live in a larger grace, to give myself and other people chances along the way. Let's abandon the make-or-break mentality in favor of building on mature experience.

We can find so much freedom when we view inspiration as a gift bestowed by God rather than a finicky and difficult inner genius to appease.

Found: Insulators

I found these glass insulators on the top of a very old felled electrical pole on our property. They have pieces of broomstick shoved into the middles and a hole drilled into that, and then they were screwed on. In my auction clerk days I sold many of these, but I don’t remember seeing any that were such a nice teal color. Maybe that is because none of them were mine!
How do you like my McDonald's-esque countertop? That's on the list to change!

Mystery Find

Can you guess what I found? Three hints:
It comes from one of my favorite animals, and it is local to my home.
It is the mascot of an Amarillo, TX sports team.
It wears armor.
An armadillo!
Last week I won a prize in a church game night, a tchochki I wouldn’t dream of bringing home. But interesting road kill or bones… I guess that’s where my savage comes out.
What reminded me of this find, was that last night my cat found the live one that lives in our field and nightly roots through my compost pile. For my sensitive grey friend, I am happy to share. The armadillo was shuffling around and Geronimo the cat was sitting about 4 feet away, as close as the shy giant would allow him. For once I was glad my cat cannot even catch a grasshopper!

Unfortunately, these lovely creatures are completely bewildered by motor vehicles. Their natural instinct, when surprised or threatened, is to jump straight in the air. Consequently they often bean themselves on a car that would have missed them otherwise. This was likely the case with the armor I found by the road.

I love the textures of the armor. I love the toothy triangular pattern and the pebbles that look like expensive jewelry. Look at the bands with course cream fur bristling between them. How might you use it in a design?

Found: Time Eaters

Ikat linen from Silk Road Fabrics

This Friday I desire to be prolific. I used to be, and now I am not. What happened? It’s not so much that I want to produce & sell more; my hands cannot keep up with my ideas, so I get backlogged. All creatives seem to have some problem like this. It's very easy to get sucked into other things, even when what you want most is to create. I have thought about it, & maybe I have a plan up the ante.

1) Variations on a Theme
I used to take a basic pattern, usually a knitting pattern, and do variations on a theme. I would make it fully my own with dye, a new stitch, beads, texture, something quick like that. Yesterday when I pulled out a sewing pattern that was supposed to be the right measurements, I realized there was major modification to be done in the fit, as well as modifications I had expected to do in the styling. Most things I have done lately are from scratch. That is the nature of the beast right now as I get my slopers set, but I plan to keep my eye on it, and choose not to reinvent the wheel every time I am tempted to.

2) Size
My projects have been epic in proportion lately, not because they look huge, but because they have a jillion parts, pieces, and steps. Here’s the short list: Wedding dresses, evening gowns, pants- things with origami folds and chiffon, rigorous fitting issues, and intense piecing. I made this ikat scarf Monday between teaching and errands & I could not believe how quickly it came, since I have been doing such monumental projects. I need more variety in the scale of my projects so I feel like I accomplish more.

3) Reduce Reverie
I spend a lot of time zoned out when I try to think through the next step. Instead of doing something that I know just needs to be done, I lose time trying to work out all the steps in my mind instead of figuring it out on the go. There is a place for planning, obviously, but I do too much of it.

So there is my big plan. What eats your time? How do you fight it?

Found: Fall Bounty

Things I love about Fall:

golden sunlight
bright blue skies

technicolor leaves

searching for (and finding) the perfect pumpkin
hot spiced apple cider

board games
meatloaf and mashed potatoes
sweaters, scarves, and boots

Found: Watching Paint Peel

Watching paint dry -or peel- wouldn't be so boring if more of it looked like this. I love the wood grain, the pattern of the paint, and the way the shadow is broken up, not to mention the soft colors. This paint is on the outside wall of my new-to-me studio, and really speaks to all the piecing I have been doing.

I am still sewing today. Hit a wall with top stitching on the jacket and I need to come up with a solution. My idea was to top stitch in standard gold on the denim, but no stitch and thread combination seems thick enough and uniform enough at the same time. I may resort to blue top stitching just to make it all smooth first. When it looks like something, I'll post pictures!

Found: Bog Shoes

Photograph by Robert Clark, National Geographic September 2007 pg. 83

For this Found Stuff Friday these aren't exactly my find. They were found on an iron age bog person in Northern Europe. Bog people were thrown into peat bogs, possibly as a ceremonial sacrifice, and their bodies were preserved.

Look how the fit is achieved through slits. It also uses less leather, not to mention how stylish they are! Would this technique work with hand felting? What would you use it for?

Found: A Bajillion Snail Shells

Snail Shell Collection

I have a fascination with repetitious things. One hundred of anything (within reason) is much better than one! As when I was a child, this past year I've collected snail shells when I find them. I also have a fossil of a sand dollar found in my yard and some iridescent bugs.