Speaking of Design

ceramics for breakfast: a design competition organized by designboom

One of the entries

name of design : the ring

design by : joung myung lee from germany

(click on above picture for more pictures of "the ring")

designer's own words: Hang your fruit on the wall. "The Ring" is an urusual fruitbowl made of porcelain. It is not placed on a dining table or on kitchen unit but hangs on the wall. The concept is between art and design. It is to be hang on the wall, like a decorative piece of art, a mordern version of still life fruit paintings. Yet, as a fruitbowl, the ring is a useful design object, shape and openings are a new and interesting unit for a fruitbowl. The fruit is put into the opening at the top and can be taken out at the bottom. At both sides opening are located to show the amount of remaining fruit. Due to it´s perviousness to air and it´s eco-friendliness, porcelain is particularly suitable as a fruitbowl. In small kitchen, space is precious on table, but walls are often left bare. So the ring, decorative design, hang on the wall, make it easier to plan your space.

Next up...

The Winning Design

name of design : glide

design by : george watson from uk

(click on above picture for more pictures of "glide")

designer's own words: There has been little development of the toaster since the start of the century, whilst other appliances have developed and improved incorporating new technologies and thinking, toaster have remained relatively untouched. When the toaster was first invented eating toast was a social activity that took place on the breakfast table, these days toasters have been relegated to cheap plastic objects hidden away in the kitchen landscape. This toaster is designed to engage the user, re-invigorating the social context of toasting by questioning everything about what we toast with today. I was also keen to make playful object to be proud of having on your breakfast table. Slip moulded bone china allowed me create this intricate and sculptural form, but also provided the material longevity that I required. This is a toaster that brings life and joy to a stagnant domestic appliance, and iconic object for the home.

See more entries and competition information here.

Adornment: Earings!

To complement my fresh cut I've been looking at earings. The last pair that were in my ears were 4 guage stainless steel tunnels. I always thought that I'd try to stretch my earlobes to 0 (zero) guage or 00 (double zero) guage but now I'm not sure. I might restretch my currently unadorned earlobes back to fit my 4 guage tunnels, but instead of leaving the tunnels/stretchings "empty" I'd like to start wearing earings going through the tunnels in addition the the stretching jewelry.

The earing designs below caught my eye. They are all from the ever-popular Anthtropoligie.com. I think each of the styles below would fit into a few of the looks I tend to incorporate into my personal "style". Click onto the individual images below to find out more about each pair of earings (I'd elaborate on why I like each of them, but I'm tired, and besides the distinctive beauty of each pair IMO speaks for each of the designs themselves.)

The first pair, "mystic earings", is the pair I'm really taken with, but with a price tag of $658 US, I doubt they will reach my longing earlobes. Maybe I'll just have to recreate my own personal knock-off of this pair! (with my own design twist, of course)

Another head band and new asymetrical hair cut

Before haircut...

Machine knitted headband made by me with button cluster accent on one side.

New haircut! (on a windy day)

Wind-blown hair with extra hair showing from behind me (it's dh bending down).

Longer right side.

Shorter left side view.

New shades, new hair, sun, and something to listen/look at

Look.



Big glasses on a sunny warm Friday - $2, Value Village this past Friday. Rosy bliss!

Listen/Look.

Thank you Thom. It's great to have some audio/visual variety in one's life.

Link: http://www.vapourbrothers.com/

Hair.

I lucked out and met Alex at my local hair cutting salon. He is awesome! And also says things like "perfect" while he is cutting. He's officially my new stylist. He slipped me his card for his main gig at this Kitsilano salon, MarkusJ. Hopefully, I can visit him once more before he makes a break from the mountain.

I've got a thing for knitting headbands

A few creations made by me. The bottom photo is the handknit knitty calorimetry pattern and the top photo is of a headscarf that was intended to be a bonnet but after machine knitting this (I modified the knitty pattern here) I decided that bonnets don't look very good on me and so a covering for my (then) outgrown hairstyle came about.

Bjork!! Live!!

I am delighted because we are planning on going to the Bjork concert that will be happening at Deer Lake Park this May 23.

The last time I saw Bjork perform live was at the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto in October of 2001 (details).

So stoked! We are even taking all the kids since it's an outdoor early evening event. Event details here.

Knitted dresses for Winter and Strawberry

These doll dresses were made on my Bond knitting machine. They are made from a few sample swatches that I created while getting aquainted with my new hardware. I love my knitting machine! Currently on it's needles is a WIP orange bulky cowl that I'm obsessed with finishing this weekend.

1952 - Hat Patterns

I just stumbled across this site. I'll be working on the above hat pattern tonight.

More vintage (1952) hat patterns here!

Hello, it's March...

... and I'm back from an extended blog-break!

And I'm also still a little fuzzy (sorry for the poor pic of my above sketch!) -- more coming!

EPIC and Airplanes

Watching airplanes take off and land at Burrard Inlet after EPIC

This past weekend we had an EPIC Sunday. We had a wonderful time at the convention. I enjoyed learning about some of the products (Dynasty car), trying tasty samples (coconut oil on a rice cracker!), seeing all the innovative exhibitions, meeting Wondertree, and hanging out with an easy-going and aware crowd.

February Blog-break: Busy with life and crafting

I've got a few WIPs and so I'm taking a February blog-break. I'll be back in March with some new creations and pictures of them! xx

Inspiration: Buttons Buttons Buttons

The above buttons are currently available here on eBay and exactly what I'd really like to score on my next thrifting run. I'm infatuated with buttons lately and want some pretty ones to add to my craft supply stash.

So taken with this

I spotted this eBay listing for this bracelet while eyeing a buttons auction from the same seller. Can we say (all together now), do not click 'pay now'?

The view today

We had a nice outing today. This is what I saw when we got home after visiting with friends.

Such an awesome view from our place! It was warmer/sunnier out today.

Greetings from Little Mouse

Hello Blog Friends,

I've had a wonderful life so far after just having been made recently (you may have heard a little about me here and here). Just a little background about me; I'm just a few weeks old and I'm stuffed with wool fleece and crocheted with thrifted cotton yarn. My eyes are light pink beads and have been pulled at in a way that they feel (and appear) loose, but I like them just the same. My nose is embellished with a few stitches of peachy-pink embroidery floss. My ears were stitched on in haste because a sweet (sleepy) young girl was in a hurry to see me with my new big ears before she could get ready for bed (great size btw, I can hear very well). I've been chewed on, stuffed into cardboard tubing, and thrown around by several young humans. At times, I lay on fuzzy light brown flooring (carpet?) while watching the flurry of activity that happens around me every day. I eat crumbs of delicous fresh food that gets spread around me often and carelessly (thankfully mostly organic food), but sometimes a huge loud machine comes around and consumes most of my bounty of deliciousness. I'm glad to report that I am often placed on a wooden table (by one of the humans) so that I can escape the wrath of the crumb-sucker. Thankfully, around mid-afternoon I nap, sweet sleep, so restful. Such a lovely life I have.

Yours,

Little Mouse

Pagoda Hat, 1938

I've been obsessing over crochet patterns lately. I found a cool-ass listing on eBay for a set of 1940's crochet hats patterns . At first I thought I couldn't pull off a hat from this era/in this style, but now I think I can. Now I want to make one.

Pagoda Hat, 1938

I think I'll try to make this pattern for a Pagoda Hat and I've got a nice moss green and white yarn that I could make it with. This yarn was a fabulous score about a month or so ago while thrifting during a 50% off sale. I got two super huge skeins of this yarn which looks like homespun wool yarn. The yarn isn't the softest but for outerwear it may work well. The "stiffness" of the yarn might also help support the structure of this style of hat. Off to start working on this. So excited!

**update: Started on this and realized my yarn does not work at all for this project. Looks like I'll have to get some crochet cotton for this hat.

Our indoor garden

The next few photos are of one of DH and DS's projects. This is our indoor garden that consists of a few plants, but honestly I'm not sure what is growing there. I *think* there is one type of mint, bell pepper (that is starting to fruit, see last pic), a type of basil, and maybe other types of plants growing.

Sadly, in a recent much needed decluttering of our ownables, a plastic crate that held files was moved and hence the second light to our garden was moved as well (this light used to clamp onto this crate). DH mentioned that the lack of second light source isn't helping our plant garden to grow as well. Hopefully we can put the second light back to enjoy a better pepper harvest.

Indoor garden on our kitchen counter top


Pepper Plant

Peppers to come

Sunday: Out and About

Trees just outside of our place. Photo taken by my 4 year old son.

Vacant building somewhere on East Hastings.

It was really sunny today! We went thrifting, stopped in at the library, had bland chinese baked goods, got cold, and went home.

To do craft list

I want to make:

A Waldorf Doll from scratch

Crocheted hand puppet

Crocheted doll perhaps in amigurumi style - There are a few awesome ones to look at here.

A Waldorf Doll in this style

a Matryoshka Doll something like this one.

I also have a few other art/craft projects that I'd like to start/complet.....so why am I online blogging then? Off to craft!

Newest Haircut

In this picture, I just finished having my haircut and my eyelids look heavy and sleepy/squinty, but yes, I am/was really happy with the new do'! So glad, especially since this was a new hair dresser who I was trying out and who seems to do well with cutting a style from a photo. The purple scarf is my remodelled Maya Wrap sling. I took out the rings and made it into a rebozo/scarf. Those rings were heavy! And yes, I love purple.