love forever

Again with the nails.

Lately, my favorite weekend activity is making a big cup of tea, putting on a good movie and doing my nails. I know, riveving, right? Honestly, it is the most relaxing thing on earth. And look at the nails! This is a variation on the last DIY mani I did a few weeks ago, which was a variation of this tutorial. Instead of using the binder reinforcement stickers at the bottoms of the nails to mimic a french manicure, I placed them on my nails randomly. You could do this with a million color variations too-imagine the possibilities!

 

Bedroom Progress Part 2

Before:Just your standard Malm bedframe

After: Headboard covered in vintage wallpaper

After After: Cut paper flowers decoupaged over the wallpaper




Several months ago I covered our Malm headboard with come vintage wallpaper. It was pretty cute but it needed a little something more. One person commented that they would want to paint all the flowers crazy colors and it sparked something. I decided to cut flowers out of colored paper and decoupage them scattered over the wallpaper. It was super easy- I used Neutral PH Adhesive PVA (basically your average white glue but acid free) and a small paint brush to adhere them. A super-easy, cheap and fun DIY!

More Bedroom Inspiration: Yellow Roses

Like pretty much everyone else in the world who can't afford an expensive bed but wants something well-designed, we have a Malm bed in our bedroom. It's a little clean and minimal for me but I always love a good Ikea hack so I am going to cover the headboard with fabric or wallpaper. And when I say I am going to, I mean to say I already did this a few weeks ago but I really don't like the wallpaper I chose and now I have to recover it. Darn me and my decorating impatience!

I am totally enchanted by this yellow rose wallpaper posted Oh Joy today (it's on the walls of the home of Teresa Canning Zast, the senior director of creative Services at Kate Spade) and think this might be the one. Now I just have to find a roll on eBay!

And if I fail, I am going to break down and get some of this fabric from Rubie Green.

Don't you think this would be lovely with a ticking stripe quilt?

Keep it Simple

All photos from Noa Emberson's Reaching for Imperfection series which in turn, were used up as backgrounds to the Visual Mixtape series. So beautiful.

This last year has been incredibly eventful: some good, some bad, most just life events that happen to everyone but hopefully, just not in twelve short months. I moved to a new city, started a new job, lost three grandparents and three grandparents-in-law, went on a book tour, started another book, my dad got divorced and moved across the country, and now, as I am packing up to move to a new home, It occurs to me that these next twelve months could be much improved if everything could just slow down.

Packing is a process that really gets you thinking about everywhere you have been and where you think you are going. I realize that I have little control over a lot of the things that happen in my life but what I can handle is the small stuff. And you know I've heard, you're not supposed to sweat the small stuff.

While I am figuring the big things out, some little things are getting tossed like: unsubscribing to newsletters and emails (the New York Daily Candy emails for instance, just make me sad and miss the past- they are doing nothing to help me now), shredding old mail and, you might have noticed, getting rid of ads on my blog. It was a failed experiment that just adds to my daily visual clutter, something I need a whole lot less of.

Here's hoping that this little experiment takes off.

What do you do to keep your life more simple?

Sol LeWitt at Mass MoCA

Mr. Loveforever and I went up to New Hampshire for the long weekend to spend some time with family and unplug. On Monday afternoon, we drove down to the Berkshires for the night and stopped at my absolutely favorite museum ever: Mass MoCA. 

Mass MoCA often focuses on large and complex art installations that would be difficult to show in most museums so their shows are always pretty amazing. Seriously, there is always a few, if not twenty exhibits I see there that take my breath away. After viewing installations using such far flung materials as wax dipped flowers, taxidermy, miles of rope and reams of tissue paper, it's hard to get excited about painting and drawing again. That was my first thought as I walked into the Sol LeWitt retrospective. I admit that I am not always the biggest fan of Conceptual and Abstract art, but the museum did an amazing job of showing the painstaking process behind these deceptively simple works.

My favorite part of the exhibit was the short movie that showed the installation process: the drawings at MASS MoCA were executed over a six-month period by a team comprising twenty-two of the senior and experienced assistants who worked with the artist over many years; thirty-three student interns from Yale University, Williams College, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and fourteen other colleges and universities; and thirteen local artists and recent graduates and post-graduates from many of the nation’s leading studio-art programs. The video showed how much work goes into measuring and taping and marking off, then carefully painting each of these geometric drawings with incredible precision. Amazing!

Of course my camera crapped out in the middle of the exhibit so I only have a few photos but you can see a photo of every piece in the retrospective plus information about the installation here.

Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts: Art vs. craft and a Giveaway too!

World renowned quilter Kaffe Fasset has a new book out called Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts (Stewart, Tabori and Chang), and oh boy, are they spectacular! That's one of the things I love about quilts: that very simple fabric circles, squares and diamonds can be sewn together to become these mesmorizing works of art. 

I love the way the quilts are photographed in the book (by Debbie Patterson) and I really love the spreads where Kaffe shows his inspiration: tiles, cobblestone streets, piles of shipping containers. You can very clearly see how these photographs translate perfectly into quilts.

Speaking of art, I asked Kaffe if he thinks what he does is Art with a capital A and here's what he said:

I'm not trying to create a deep art statement through my craft, but I suppose it’s as much art as you wish to make it. I am deeply challenged and satisfied by the task of putting as much beauty and wit as I can into a traditional form. I feel after 40 years being involved with so called craft that I'm not anywhere near bored with making use of my hands to create further variations on my themes—the most important of which, to me, is colour. Colour is deeply mysterious and has the power to transform our level of consciousness, which, isn’t that what art does? The same as poetry and sonata forms are to writers and musicians, colour is really my subject in all I do, and that is a never ending study. There must be something to it or I'm sure I'd have dried up years ago.

I guess that brings up an important question: is art defined by the audience, the beholder or is defined by the artist who makes it? Does it even matter if you love what you are creating?
I think a lot of people who make things don't think consciously about making art but just because it's subconscious doesn't mean it isn't happening. I personally have a pretty broad definition of art: I think any original act of creation and expression that comes from within is art. As much as I love the art that hangs on the walls of museums, art exists in many many other places. Without that belief, I'm not quite sure where I would be.

If you would like to get direct feedback on your quilt-making skills from Kaffe and his co-author Liza Prior Lucy, join his quilt-along!

And now for the giveaway!! Please leave a comment below and let us know: is there a difference between art and craft? What is it?

Comments close on Monday the 24th at 5pm. Good luck!!

Blog Tour: Crochet Adorned + Crochet in Fashion

I am so excited that Linda Permann is stopping here on her blog tour for her fantastic book Crochet Adorned. To be completely honest, I am not very good at crochet but reading this book really makes me want to pick up a hook and improve my sad skills. 

Crochet tends to take a back-seat in crafting to knitting (but not for long!) but you can do so many amazing things with crochet. Linda's book is all about adorning and embellishing your clothing with crochet elements: a garden of flowers on a cardigan, a little trim on a simple shoe or a yoke of crochet on a blouse. I love the contrast of crochet with fabric: it's very feminine and the play of textures is really cool. Plus, I love a project that you can finish in a night! 

Linda and I were talking about crochet and fashion and we thought it would be fun to show runway looks that are crocheted. As designers, we often turn to runway shows for inspiration. Though most people don't ever own one stitch of designer clothing, I like to think of runway shows as fashion fantasy. Remember that part from The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda (Meryl Streep's character) tells Andy (Anne Hathaway's character that even though she thinks she is beyond fashion, pretty much everything that people buy to wear trickles down from the runway? Oh, it's so true. Runway fashion may not be affordable, wearable or even make any sense from time to time but it has an undeniable affect on every designer, from a large team at a big box store to a small designer hand-sewing her collection.

Here are some images of crochet on the runways from the last few years:

Clockwise from top left: A Detacher Spring 2009, Collette Dinnigan Fall 2007,Kenzo Spring 2009, PPQ Spring 2009, John Rocha Fall 2008, D & G Fall 2008

Now, on the other hand, designers right now are highly influenced by crafters. Crafting as a hobby gets more popular every year and things that feel or look handmade are getting more highly prized in our increasingly disposable culture. Fashion designers have always looked to us, the people, the street, for cues just as we look to them. So it's a give and take, a free exchange of ideas and creativity. 

To find out more about Linda and her book, visit her website.

Are you consciously influenced by runway fashion? Do you look at the shows every season?

All Done and a Plea for the Crafters

(a few of my Craft Stylish projects over the last year)

Last week was my last post as a regular contributor to Craft Stylish. If you follow craft gossip (yes it exists, believe me!) you may have heard that Craft Stylish has restructured the nature of the site (you can read about it here) and all the regular contributors were let go. This is another unfortunate blow to the crafty publishing world. 

More and more people are picking up crafting as a hobby every year and yet, it's really hard for craft magazines and websites to stay in business. Some of this is just part of the flailing economy; the publishing industry is doing fairing pretty poorly across the board right now. Also, people are really used to getting everything online for free. The only model for money-making online right now is ad-based. What happens when no one is buying ads?

And what else can be done? I wrote about this a few months ago when the print component of CRAFT folded but I do think that people who love crafts need to put their money where their mouths are. Nowadays, it's so easy to find free craft tutorials and projects online that a lot of people don't even bother to pay for a magazine or a book but crafters need to make a living too! Sure a lot of what we do is for love but love doesn't pay the rent.

Craft is all too often undervalued: crafters underprice their wares and buyers often think, "well I can get this cheaper at Target or Wal-mart (and no, I'm not linking to them). But you can't get the same thing. Handmade items have soul, they have heart, someone made it by hand for you. The same goes for a handmade tutorial. They take time to do right: not only do you need a great idea put you need to write clear instructions and take well-lit, well-styled photos. Writing a good tutorial is a craft in and of itself which is why people who are good at this should get paid a decent, fair wage. 

So I beg of you, if you love beautifully made crafts, support your favorite crafters! Buy their books (and I'm not just saying this because I have a book coming out!), shop at craft fairs, appreciate the value of something the is made by hand. Think about the possibility of paying a subscription for an online craft magazine. Buy fewer but more well-made things. Really think about where your money is going. I'm going to try to do that too and maybe we can make this better together.

Isaac!

Like most angst-y suburban dwelling youths, my biggest dream was to get out and move to the big city. Even though it was only 40 minutes away, New York seemed like it was a universe away. I was obsessed with icons, books and movies that seemed so very "New York": Andy Warhol, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Auntie Mame, Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz and Unzipped. Unzipped is a documentary about fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi as he gets ready for fashion week. It's very New York and I watched it about two hundred times.
I loved his approach to style ("front to the back" anyone?), life and fashion. I loved his friends, his life and, of course, his mom. I couldn't wait to be a stylish, charmingly neurotic New Yorker.
Isaac's career path has been really interesting, from high end runway shows to Tar-jay. Now, he has been given the challenge of over-hauling Liz Claiborne. This is kind of old news of course and I kept meaning to write about it and then promptly forgot until Isaac made an appearance on Martha today.
The clothes look great (love that grey and white dress with yellow heels) but what I really adore are the ads! Women of all ages and ethnicities looking fabulous in a fashion ad plus hysterical Isaac cameos? So amazing. Thanks Isaac.
What do you think? Would you shop Liz Claiborne because it's Isaac designed?

PS- Isaac is also the host of a brand-new reality show on Bravo called The Fashion Show. Now that Project Runway has jumped channels (and possibly the shark), let's hope this one is good.

Time for Plan B?

This isn't usually what I talk about but it's like a big elephant in the room that I keep trying to ignore:
So Craft is moving online, Domino is gone, O at Home is gone, Readymade is close and the list keeps growing. Honestly, I am thrilled that Craft is at least sticking around online; if they disappeared completely it would be a huge blow to the craft world.
Everyone is talking about how blogs are the new magazine but blogs often don't have original content, we are inspired by magazines, and most importantly, we often work for free. No one is paying me to write what I write (not that I wouldn't accept a donation!)here. Most bloggers write out of the kindness of their hearts, the love of the blog community and the vague concept of "publicity".
But people don't make a living on kindness. I am worried that real magazines with big budgets will be replaced by this "working for free" model. On behalf of all the freelancers out there, I ask all online magazines out there to figure out a way to pay writers well. Your budgets will still be smaller no matter what.
And although I love writing online, I am incredibly inspired by magazines and their content. If they were gone, I wouldn't have as much to write about. I love having a magazine in my hands, studying the pages, ripping them out to put them in my inspiration book. I think that blogs can't live without magazines and vice versa: it's a symbiotic relationship not a competitive one.
Holly tweeted about this article in the New York Times a couple of days ago about figuring out your Plan B. It's been a terrifying couple of months: watching magazines I used to work for fold and getting told over and over again that "we're just not hiring freelancers right now".
It's not totally time for Plan B for me and, honestly I'm not sure if I have one, but it's definitely time for a change in my behavior. Like most New Yorkers, I spend a lot of money on going out, buying dresses, taking cabs. Or I did until this year. If I had known last year what i know now, I would probably have a lot more in my savings. That dang hindsight, being 20/20 and all.
What do you think about magazines and blogs? Are you ok with getting all your inspiration online or will you miss the touch of the magazine page?