Fine Fettle

New Hobbie - OOAK creepy doll repaints

2021-03-24T21:39:00.001-06:00

Barbie as Feminist Icon

2020-01-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, no toy could compare to Barbie. I didn’t like baby dolls or stuffed animals (they seemed too close to living things that might walk around when I wasn’t there). It’s current popular consensus that baby dolls are a way for children (of both sexes) to act out scenarios that help formulate empathy for others, to work out perspective and understand other relationships. But I find it very strange to have little girls pretending to have a baby. I never wanted to pretend I had a baby - I wanted to pretend I had a job to go to, an apartment to decorate and functions to attend in formal evening wear (events like winning an Oscar or a Pulitzer - not like going to a ball to find a prince). Barbie is the reason I learned to sew when I was 8, to be able to dress her in my own creations.

Since the 1990’s Barbie has often been cited as an anti-feminist icon.
That decade marked the rise of the third wave of feminism. This wave was different from the first wave (the late 19th century push for suffrage) and the second wave (the 1960’s concentration on legal and social equality) - this third wave focused on individuality and diversity. Simultaneously a psychological disorder was hitting its peak diagnosis numbers; anorexia nervosa.

In the The Trauma of Facing Deportation we learn Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking’s theory that psychological afflictions can be contagious - that a certain society can manifest unusually high rates of a disorder in a snowballing effect. Personally I remember anorexia being the most talked about psychological disorder of that time. It was afflicting almost only teen girls, and I was a teen girl, so perhaps that’s why it seemed so prevalent to me. It was so ubiquitous a concern in the culture that strangers thought it appropriate to ask me if I was alright (because they believed I was too skinny). Additionally trending Media images of the waif model-look fueled a backlash against “skinny” female ideals, the surge in anorexia cited as a direct result. Barbie and her measurements bore part of this backlash.

If she were human sized, she’d be 5’ 9” (one inch taller than me) 110 lbs. (45 lbs less than me). This gives her a BMI of 16.2 . Anything under 17.5 is considered anorexic and dangerous to one’s health. It is theorized she would not be able to menstruate due to her low BMI. Her chest is 36”, waist 16” and Hips 33”. This gives her a Waist/ Hip ratio of .05. It has long been believed that .07 or lower waist/ hip ratio denoted optimum health and fertility in women. .07 and lower is also generally considered most physically attractive universally (with only actual weights varying when taking into consideration cultural preferences for taste). For example Kim Kardashian has a healthy BMI of 22.5, but she still has a waist/ hip ratio of .065.

Although Barbie later went on to embody every possible career known to man she began her career as a model. And, ok, her specific measurements are unobtainable by any human being, but I never thought of her body as being malformed - I only understood that clothing could never look bad on her because every proportion was so extreme. In the fashion industry the term “Paris Thin” refers to the ideal weight of a Parisienne runway model. The ideal measurements are 5’ 10”, less than 120 lbs with a BMI of 17. There is a reason runway models have exaggerated proportions: they are acting as live mannequins - ideal representations of a fantasy.

Models’ extreme exaggerated bodies are used to sell products similarly to how cars in commercials are shown in situations very few drivers will ever experience: winding swiss mountain vistas, or how food photography involves photographing fake food (the result rarely matching up with the product found in the box).

The one anomaly to Barbie’s measurements compared to runway models are her enormous boobs (which in the real world would not fit into the required size 0s). She has these because she was based originally on a sexy mid-century German comic book character for adults - Bild Lilli, a character whose daily adventures centered around attracting rich men.

I will diverge for a moment to theorize; Why do boobs attract men? As we have learn in Your Inner Fish every physical attribute has an evolutionary history. Our ancestors once walked on all fours with butts, at eye level, serving as the primary feature to attract a mate.

It is theorized that we stood up on the plains of Africa to better see both prey and predator. When this happened butts were no longer at eye level, despite still being the important attracting feature. Females whose breasts most resembled butts (versions closer to eye level) were most likely to attract mates and procreate, passing those butt-shaped boob genes on to offspring.

Despite her Bind Lilli inspiration, Barbie isn’t a male vision of sexuality. She doesn’t exist to be ogled by men, and in fact exists outside the orbit of male dominance.

Simone De Beauvoir’s Woman as Other explores in depth the idea that women are a variation on the main character - the man. He is the archetype, the prototype, the original, and she is the follow up, the second banana.

But in Barbie’s world - Barbie came first. Ken was a marketing afterthought following two years later, and as every Barbie fan knows - is merely an accessory. She’s always the main character. Everything in Barbie’s world is carefully curated for her, not Ken.

Barbie was created by a woman for girls. In Composing a Life Mary Bateson says “The self fluctuates through a lifetime and even through the day”. She maintained the development of one’s self image was constant and ongoing.

How young girls create their sense of self early on was on Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler’s, mind. Before Barbie’s existence girls didn’t have a toy that allowed them to imagine themselves doing exciting things as an adult. A tool to help them imagine their future - a future not predetermined to be that of a mother. In fact, Barbie has never had children. Barbie has never been married. Barbie exists entirely outside the state of procreation; a body that could never support life (which is to say: she technically has NO need for a man).

Radical feminist Shulamith Firestone, an outspoken member of the second wave of feminism, argued that women can never truly be free of patriarchy until they are freed from the perception that their bodies are first and foremost vessels for reproduction. If Barbie is outside of the experience of reproduction altogether, she is completely free to create her own path, not yoked to a twenty year commitment to care for and keep safe a brood of offspring. This is what she offers a young girl’s imagination - unlimited possibilities.

Now, on to what this has to do with me personally and what I have discovered about myself during this class. When I was a teenager I was a terrible problem. I cut my first day of high school and for the next two years if I ever went to school (which I did periodically) I was immediately sequestered into “in-school suspension” - an all day detention as punishment for truancy. Because I had nothing to do in there but school work and make-up tests, I still managed to pass every class. The academic part was always easy for me - it was the hallways, the class rooms, the gym and the people in those places I was trying to avoid. When I was 15 I had just about convinced my mother, (in a family that only cares about acquiring multiple degrees) to allow me to quit school.

Luckily I had an epiphany while looking at my many friends, already dropped out, pregnant and/or aimless addicts, and reconsidered. When I was 17, and my mother realized I would actually graduate, she offered to pay for me to go to school for whatever I wanted. I felt panicked and under pressure to pick something, make a plan and get out. I racked my brain to think of what I could imagine doing for a living - forever (or at least for 25 years) and all I could remember enjoying was designing for and dressing Barbie.

I spent my senior year creating a portfolio for my application - with Mr. Dinchuk - the art teacher that let the boys smoke pot in the art closet, doing research on exactly what that entailed. So I owe my 25 year career in the fashion industry to Barbie. And even now, I don’t know if that was a waste of my time or way to easily provide for my family for 25 years. I didn’t do much for any one else in all of that time, because the career I chose is in an industry that doesn’t do much for humanity.

What I’m doing now, in this class, in this program, is figuring out what else I’m good at, and which of those things can be parlayed into a career that perpetuates some kind of progress in society. To find a function that will be most helpful to my fellow human beings.

What Barbie helped me develop, was a strong sense of individualism and independence and self - but she was a lone doll in her office, in her perfect apartment, in her perfect outfit. She could not help me to figure out how to navigate into a vast system of public service filled with a sea of disparate personalities, negotiate, listen and strive towards conflict resolution. But I can feel these skills being honed by the decisions I am now making.

This is the art piece that accompanied this presentation:

How We May be Saved by Leaning in to Hive Mind

2020-01-01T10:06:00.001-07:00

Let’s imagine reincarnation is real. Now imagine if everything that transpired and was learned in each past life could be remembered at the beginning of every new life without a single lesson lost. Each individual could begin from where they left off - with all of the wisdom of a previous lifetime. This would mean you could accumulate more than the average 80 years of experience. Perhaps that average lifespan is not enough time for a human being to begin to evolve psychologically and emotionally (on a path to enlightenment). Now imagine you could access these multiple life-times of experience, trial and error, experimentation, just by tapping into a global consciousness, or “Hive Mind.” In 1984, Lewis Thomas looked to societies of insects and other animals where the many function as one, and posited that humans could benefit from collective information-sharing similar to that found in eusocial systems of termites, bees or ants.

Lewis states “we do not often feel our conjoined intelligence” and suggests societal information-building should work similarly to scientific systems of communication; each scientific discovery/ theory treated as a single part of the whole (known to all at once, so they can piece the puzzle, in the end, together). However, this piece was written in 1984, before the implementation of the current state of the internet, before information was first and foremost added to this living public web of connection for anyone to access. I believe at this time we are now so interconnected and that knowledge (and experience) is so readily shared that Lewis’ ideal is close to realization. We are already set up technologically and (as we practice via social media) socially to move towards a functioning “hive mind” system. We just need to harness the power of it.

Traditionally, the idea of “Hive Mind” in humanoids is portrayed as a dangerous threat in science fiction. From the Precogs in Philip K Dick’s The Minority Report to the eerie blue-eyed children of the 1960 film Village of the Damned, the idea of many minds acting as one is usually imagined as an armed weapon, increasing the power of a group even while it robs each member of its individuality and humanity. The Borg from Star Trek are an example of “groupthink” gone so far that the individual no longer even exists or matters, and has become expendable. It’s clear we as humans are frightened of this intellectual model of “many functioning as one”.

What is this fear of intellectual connectedness based in? Maybe we believe our individual thoughts and experiences are what make us unique. We may be robbed of our creativity or ability to reach our own conclusions based on learned criteria if we are bombarded by the constant input of others’ conclusions and experiences. But I argue that a Hive Mind system, which we could plug into online, would only flood in more data, making new, novel theories easier to formulate, in turn making conclusions more accurate and would speed up advancement in all fields exponentially. It would not affect your ability to think on your own - it would only instantly broaden your horizons, multiply your data sets and hone the probability of your statistics.

I believe this system of information sharing would also aid in consensus among populations, making action towards change and progress easier and swifter. Environmental preservation, for example, is a complex issue (often strangled by diverging interests of the involved parties that must agree to move forward.) In The Purpose of a Coherent Community Wendell Berry advises those seeking to save and preserve what is being destroyed are outnumbered, and making little headway, adding that these preservation organizations have to face, for the first time in history, this urgent question: “Can we change the ways we live and work so as to establish a preserving harmony between the made and given worlds?”.

When Berry says “we think we can safely deal with parts, leaving the whole to take care of itself”, he is warning against not seeing the “big” picture - the global landscape. Not taking into consideration every member of the human race and what they are able to contribute towards change. I believe we are already on our way to figuring out how to use this collective resource of information to make broader, more far-reaching changes towards preservation. Current fear of climate change adds an element of pressure through lack of time, but the system may already be in place for changing the “whole”.

Lewis’s observations of eusocial systems reaching a critical mass of efficiency, may be applicable to give incentive to end divisive social habits in humans (the tendency to look for differences between disparate societies, rather than the similarities). With a specific goal in mind of pooling our collective abilities in the interest of a final outcome of better, clearer, more accurate information overall, perhaps we could put less emphasis on what makes us each unique (and therefore different from one another) and concentrate instead on a greater good. We could work together consciously towards an objective more complex than our individual needs and wants.

One ant alone can not achieve much. Ten ants working together look like they have an agenda (to move a dead moth to the hill). Thousands of ants together resemble the workings of an intelligent system, like a computer. The intelligence of the ant hill adds up to a more complex and sophisticated system than the sum of its individual ant-brain parts. We may be on the brink of a societal shift that could see Lewis’s and Berry’s ideals realized; a global coherent community made possible by how we upload and access the whole of what we as humans have seen, heard and analyzed - so we can all move forward from the same point of education and experience.

Step One : Write That Shit Down

2018-09-15T12:02:00.000-06:00

My friend recently shared an Erykah Badu quote which sums up the purpose of my first step:

And I don't know all of the specifics of the clockwork of the universe, but it just produces results; fast, efficiently, precisely. I used to think as long as I said it out loud future Kit would make it happen, but now I realize there were always notebooks full of notes and plans and calendars on how to make it happen... and that was probably the magic part.

So I got this here planner (InnerGuide 2018 Goal & Life Planner):

And I write down everything, every day.

On the left: trying to figure out vitamins. On the right: keeping track of how badly I fail at meeting new people (I can hardly even find famous people in the world to be inspired by...) My misanthropy runs wayyyy too deep.

I keep track of anything I hear or read that inspires me:

General plans and goals (and you can see at the bottom this particular planner has lots of inspirational quotes and visualization techniques along the way):

And more specific plans and lists to keep track of progress (This is a list of films I want to see - except, NOT Frances Ha, because I just tried watching it last night and it was stupid.)

Visual boards to look at to remind of how I want something to look (like my bathroom, or a vacation or here, this is my style aesthetic - equal parts Joan Jett/ Bjork/ Dita Von Teese):

The most important aspect is honesty, and I have to admit (and confront) the failures until I can figure out the puzzle. This planner (of course) puts a lot of emphasis on spirituality - and I just....lag at getting to that part. Every month. But I at least admit it and think about and it's in there in the Rube Goldberg machine of my brain being worked on.

New Blog Direction: How I plan to change the world by changing myself

2018-06-16T12:23:00.000-06:00

The original reasons I began this blog no longer exist. In 2010 I felt I had much time to bide, as I focused all of my energy (mental and otherwise) on the raising of two other human beings.

I am currently in what feels like the last leg of this twenty year commitment I made (the boys will both go off to college by 2021) and I am using this time to prepare myself to launch into the world in a bigger way than I have previously ever attempted.

If I had to guess what people who know me think about my life choices up to now, I imagine I come across as a weird combination of stubbornly unstable (due to my lack of any risk-aversion and abbreviated tolerance for geographical locations) and rock solid (as I've very rarely said I was going to do something and then flaked/ failed/ flunked out*). *Marriages aside.

Routinely I come up with a cockamamie scheme that includes an enjoyable journey to the ultimate goal, usually in response to solving a problem. Once I moved somewhere, on a whim, that I'd never lived, knew no one, with no job - it got easier each time, until it is just the way I move along in the world.

So - I designed a journey to get me to the Peace Corps (a lifetime goal). It involves completing a BA, that I have never had time to finish, and generally using the next three years to become a more useful person for the world. I believe we all have a responsibility to others to live up to our full potential. If there is a meaning to life, I think that using all of your resources to their maximum capacity to help shape things positively for others is a crucial component.

But my plan will be hard, and to accomplish my goals I need to change many things (because the person starting out on this quest isn't actually equipped to complete the journey as I am).

Real change as an adult is very tricky. You have to start by understanding what makes a person what they currently are, and why it is so hard to change.

I am not a religious or spiritual person (I am a little on "the show me the data" side of things when it comes to the pursuit of enlightenment), but I do make a lot of important decisions based solely on intuition. Intuition to me is not magic; it is very fast-firing synapses coming to conclusions based on past experience faster than my mind can consciously follow. It is me trusting "non-thinking Kit", in the same way I implicitly trust "future Kit" and "past Kit". "Future Kit" has my back. "Past Kit" had her reasons. "Fly-by-the-seat-of her-pants Kit" has access to data I haven't had time to analyze. She is rarely wrong. Note: "Romantic relationship Kit" is defective and not to be trusted. She is on a forced moratorium.

Step one: Inspiration

I heard a radio interview with Drew Houston (co-founder of DropBox) in which he talked about the philosophy that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.
This theory resonated with me, and I thought it really answered so many questions I had in my life about how people I had known seemed unable to change, despite them voicing their intention to. Imagine: you are married, have 3 children and visit with your mom several times a week. Your 5 influencing personalities are locked in - seemingly forever. That probably makes change extremely difficult, as those people will change very little over time. It's why it's so much easier to completely change your life after divorce, moving and changing jobs.

Step two: Implementation

I have the 2 kids and they're locked in, and there is a co-worker I spent most days with, and she's a fine person - but I still have 2 empty slots open to fill with personalities to help me change.
I am not a social person, and I do push myself to do things outside the house (like go see old movies, attend informational meetings on the Peace Corps or a local "Paint nite") but none were resulting in bringing an inspiring person into my life to a level that it would change me.

So I thought I might be able to find a public figure that inspired me; someone who blogged or vlogged enough each day that it would affect my decisions and actions.

I searched for inspirational and influential people and researched each to see if they inspired me. The first candidate I settled on was Tim Ferriss (an author of some self-improvement type books and a tech angel investor). I'm not recommending him for you- I just happened to relate to how he compiles data (mostly from interviewing very successful people), analyzes it, trouble shoots some real world routines based on that info and then recommends daily routines to emulate the results. I was inspired to very quickly change my diet and some bad habits based only on his ideas, so I think my experiment is definitely working do far.

I don't find his life particularly inspiring. I really prefer to find a humanitarian type with bigger ideals and less focus on financial success as a measure of life's success; but I do concede that it may be easier to be in a position of influential power in conjunction with financial power, so I'm not going to dismiss the idea that rich people have much to teach.

Anyway, that's the beginning of this thing and I thought I'd write it all down here as I go along.

~Kit

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

2018-04-02T16:11:00.000-06:00

Recently watched this masterpiece (I added FilmStruck with Criterion Collection to Roku), and now every mundane moment of my single mom life feels like I am in this film.

That reminds me of something...

2017-05-09T21:50:00.001-06:00

I can't stand it when one song sounds like another song. It drives me bananas, and I go around searching the interwebs to see if other people hear it and are also angry - just to see if I'm crazy or not.

It doesn't matter if both songs are good - it just makes me unable to enjoy either until I know exactly what's going on. Because, despite what Nickelback would have you believe (when two of their hits were mashed to expose they were pretty much the same song, the band suggested there may be a formula to hit songs and it was a coincidence) there's no such thing as coincidentally writing a song that already exists all on your own by mistake. You sir, ripped someone off. Even if it was yourself.

So, after years of being perturbed that Amerie's 1 Thing (2005), JLO's Get Right (2005) and Beyonce's Crazy in Love (2003) all sound the same I decided to investigate.

And I'm not crazy! Because guess what? All written (or co-written) by the same dude, Rich Harrison, who is also really only best known for these three songs, all of which were hits (written within 2 years of each other), and really - no other hits. Ever.

He wrote Crazy in Love first and says "I had it in the chamber, I had not really shopped it much, because sometimes you do not want to come out of the bag before it's right. People do not really get it and you will leave them with a foul taste in their mouth." Beyonce approached him about using it and together (With JayZ) they put the finishing touches on it in. It was released in May 2003.

In May 2004 Harrison started writing "1 Thing" using the sample from The Meters Oh, Calcutta!. Amerie helped finish it and recorded it but the label "didn't get it" and wouldn't release it. JLO was interested in using the song on her album - when Amerie and Harrison leaked it. When the studio couldn't squash it (and radio began playing it) it was released on Amerie's album

Harrison actually wrote "Get Right" first as "Ride" for Usher, but it didn't make it onto Usher's album. So Harrison reworked (c-o-u- jacked it -gh) it for JLO to sound even more like "1 Thing" and JLO released it.

Usher was not happy.

Rich Harrison found a formula with Crazy in Love in 2003, and then shamelessly duplicated it for JLO and Amerie (and Usher) at the same time.

All three songs are influenced by Go-Go (a regional style of funk originating in DC - where Harrison is from).

All three songs take samples from 70's albums (Chi-Lites (0:13) for CIL - 1970/ Maceo and the Macks (0:57) for Get Right - 1973/ The Meters (1:46) for 1 Thing - 1969).

Later, to make them all really mix and match, Fabolous is featured on versions of both JLO and Amerie's songs.

So, although Harrison is really only ripping off himself, it's still creating perturbing ripples across the universe which annoy me.

1 Crazy Thing Mash Up.
1 Thing to Get Right Mash Up.
Crazy in Love Get it Right Mash Up.

Monotone Master Bedroom Makeover on a Budget

2016-08-20T13:46:00.002-06:00

First; here is the Pinterest Board of all of my inspiration.

The objective was to create a room that feels like a vintage photograph. I'm not done, as I have the master bath to finish, and I still need to figure out the paint (I want it to look like vintage concrete/ plaster).

I dry brushed matte grey paint over a black mirror frame, highlighted the details with chrome spray paint and distressed it using chrome spray paint (and over spraying vinegar). Tutorial Here.

I dry brushed a lighter grey over a black chair, and reupholstered the seat with a thrift store blouse.

I replaced the hideous 1970's recessed lights with pendants. First painting molded plastic medallions with dark grey, then dry brushing lighter grey over that.

We built the small shelves from a salvaged teak patio table and new brackets (I white washed them for a soft look).

We picked up a free, composite sofa table circa 1983 (it used to be a creepy 1980's fleshy shrimpy color and had a missing glass top). We fitted the top with reclaimed planks of varying types of wood (creating a multi-color look). I stained the boards with a grey stain, and did about 5 coats of varying grey paints on the base to get to this look. You can't even tell it's not carved wood any more.

I dry brushed matte grey over an antique dresser that was black, and spray the drawer fronts chrome.

I used a super long charcoal burlap curtain set to create one medium length set and one cafe length set (9 bucks at Next Tuesday - or whatever that place is called - I always want to say Ruby Tuesday or 'Til Tuesday...). The thermal blanket covering the old recliner was also from there. The owl pillow was $3 from Goodwill.

I dry brushed a $3 Goodwill frame from Goodwill and filled it with romantic, vintage photos (from Pinterest).

Vintage Romance

2016-08-10T17:43:00.001-06:00

Kaufman/ Jonze Rambling

2016-07-31T12:03:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite movies is Adaptation; a film about a writer trying to write a screenplay (of the film you’re watching), from a book that should just stay a book, and the neuroses the writer subjects himself to. To distract himself he indulges in all manner of digressive fantasies (written into the screenplay - of the film you’re watching - as reality). Even writing himself into the screenplay (twice - once as his non-existent twin brother). Ultimately the book’s story does get told in sync with the dizzying offshoots.

The duo that made that movie (as well as "Being John Malkovich", also critically acclaimed), Charlie Kaufman (writer) and Spike Jonze (director), are two halves of a perfectly flawed being. But left each to their own devices they are so broken that they cannot make a film that comes even close.

In 2008/2009 each made movies alone that would have benefited from the other.

Jonze made “Where the Wild things are” - one of the most terrifying films ever made. It somehow encapsulates everything that is frightening about dealing with others while trying to live on this planet. It is all about perceived fear: and how we either live in fear of another, based on perceived danger, or unknown possible danger, or bluffing ourselves into a position of power by getting others to fear us. It’s about how precarious this system based on fear is, as the tables can turn at any moment - and we may then be in real peril. It captures the menacing feeling of anxiety in a primal way - based on imminent bodily harm. There is no intellectual counterpart to talk anyone down in the story. The characters are monster/children functioning on only rudimentary decision making skills - basing choices on temperature, hunger and physical safety. The fact that it is presented as a children’s story only makes me more uncomfortable when I watch it.

At the same time Kaufman made “Synecdoche, NY” - a sprawling, neurotic epic that explores the feeling many intellectuals have of not actually being here - a constant questioning of existence, and purpose. Time slips, health is subjective, things get very very large and very very small. Lives swap and get confused and there is always this persistent feeling of having missed something - lost something - forgotten to remember something. It is the opposite of Jonze’s work - all ego and no id. It is navel gazing on the grandest scale. In fact the movie turns out to be a parody of the exact idea it’s exploring; “Can you make a piece of art that addresses the enormity of life on Earth entirely?” No. I kind of love/ hate the movie (and although I have watched it a hundred times I would never recommend it to anyone because they might hate me for subjecting them to it). It is retardedly long, insanely complex (the character name puns and obscure psychological references are quietly input at every turn). It’s one big inside joke for Kaufman. But I fantasize about the film it could have been if Jonze could have been there to poke some fun - to interject perspective while Kaufman spun down the rabbit hole. Although the ideas are supposed to explore “the big picture” - the meaning of life, the whole picture is exactly what’s missing, depicting a boring, depressive, myopic view of a tiny world.

I also imagine a different version of Wild Things, with Kaufman there to inject nutty sidebars - snippets of humanity to help make the anxiety and fear easier to sit through, like we all like to do to get through day to day life. No one, even a prisoner, can live in total fear for their physical safety every moment. All humans need a reprieve inside their own imagination from their circumstance, no matter how unstable. Because the film is presented as a kid’s story, based on a 10 sentence picture book - it doesn’t feel compelled to explain anything about where we are or how we got here. Kaufman would have dug and exposed the character’s souls, keeping them from being walking, toothy stuffed animals (including the kid).

I know what people see as genius in Jonze is his ability to elicit instinctual emotion (That Ikea lamp commercial!). I don’t, personally, find unchecked emotional manipulation to be that interesting. It can be exhausting. Emotion must be tempered with intellect to create drama or comedy.

Conversely Kaufman’s movie suffers from lack of the ability to admit that sometimes you need to let stuff go. Thinking hard and deep and long inside your own head, without outside interference, is a great ride until you’ve forgotten to pull up. It’s why we need other people around.

While thinking about all of this I came across a YMS 4 part unfinished review of "Synecdoche, NY" that was very interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjqYpsuBrPU.

Fashion Photography: Hitchcock Inspired

2016-05-13T19:23:00.003-06:00

The Work of Noel Cruz: Old Hollywood Re-Painted Dolls

2016-05-02T15:14:00.000-06:00

24 hour/ $24 makeover: Office & Guest Room

2016-04-17T14:01:00.000-06:00

I just really needed a project, so I decided to see if I could remake the office/ guest room in 12 hours.

I bought new curtains from Tuesday Morning for $12.

I scoured the house for every hard-back book, and removed all of the dust jackets to reveal the old-timey covers.

I framed some other old photographs I'd bought for no good reason at an antique fair (these are some local twin sisters that were vaudevillian stars in the twenties). Spray painted an old frame with hammered copper. I gathered some red/ black/ vintage-y stuff for staging. I pretty much designed the whole room around this lamp, which was already here (bought by my mom at garage sale 30 years ago).

I used a neutral, quilted bed cover for now - but I do have plans to make a tufted leather cover for the mattress, so it really looks like a couch. That will involve money....

The Many Moods of Dita in Red

2016-02-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fashion Photography: Jeanne D'Arc

2016-02-14T12:34:00.002-07:00

Unpaper Towels

2016-02-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

     As a family we have agreed to strive towards Zero Waste (somehow, at some point, painstakingly changing our habits until we are one of those households that end up with just one mason jar full of trash per year).

     I haven't mentioned it or blogged about it because it really seems like an "all-or-nothing" achievement - and making the decision doesn't make all of the already purchased paper products disappear, or all of the needed replacements appear.

     Many of the principles of Zero Waste happen to coincidentally align with some of my own, so a lot of the changes others may need to make to reach the Zero Waste goal my family is already used to living with.

My principles are:
     #1. Never spend any money on anything if at all humanly possible.
     #2. Use an aesthetic that dictates most things look like they could have existed in 1897.
     #3. Do everything yourself; because if someone else can do it, so can you (plus this helps achieving #1 and #2).

   Because of the above ideals we already use as little plastic as possible (because it's ugly), plan the crap out of our weekly meals (the kids are used to my husband and I high-fiving over a "Zero Dollar" meal), build everything from reclaimed scraps and shop thrift stores.

    Living in Sonoma County already dictates we bring our own bags to shop, use as little as water as possible and plant alternatives to lawn grass (we now have the fluffiest clover lawn you've ever seen).

   So the first step is to wean ourselves from the most difficult dependencies. Paper towels and paper napkins are a huge hurdle.

    Today I am attempting to begin the switch to "unpaper" towels. A roll of fabric towels that sit on the paper towel holder and function the same way.

    I will preface this by saying I am not convinced my family will fully participate in this experiment, but if I don't try I won't know.

   First I started in the shed and picked through my fabric scraps to see what might be appropriate.

     I picked some felt for the wicking side and a variety of green wovens for the other side. I did some field testing on each to gauge absorbancy and drying rates (and also to be sure the green fabrics wouldn't crock or bleed). Most people making these themselves are using terry cloth for the wicking side, but I didn't have that in my bins. I know felt will not machine wash well, so these are designed to be rinsed after using and hung to dry.

    I picked a variety of greens and browns (because I really only like things to be green and brown - if I can help it).

     Because I was at the mercy of my mismatched scraps dimensions, it took a long time to do the math needed to maximize what I had. I came up with all towels measuring at 10" high (the roll height) and at varying lengths ranging from 10" to 14".

   If you are novice sewer this is the perfect project, because it is essentially a pillow (and pillows are the first thing they teach you to machine sew in Home Ec).

If your fabric has a "right" and "wrong" side, be sure to put the "right" sides together.

      Sew all 4 corners but leave an unsewn gap along the long side (back tack each edge).

Snip your corners for easier turning.

Turn the whole thing right side out and use your scissors to push pointy corners.

Top stitch your gap closed. If this was a pillow you stuff it before this step.

I used metal snaps because I am avoiding plastic - but I am not sure how they will hold up (or if they will scratch wooden surfaces when the towels are being used).

The only thing you need to consider when placing the snaps is to make sure every set is the exact same distance apart (so any towels can snap to any other). Velcro is another option.

I will post more about these once we've lived with them for a while.

Reclaimed Wood Garden Table

2016-02-07T15:07:00.001-07:00

My husband built this outdoor garden table from excess reclaimed wood from his shop.

We found these spigot handle-look drawer pulls at a Vintage Style Antiques on Kentucky.

Josh re-used veggie crates from his restaurant deliveries for the backboard. They have a vintage look - but are currently used by one of his local Sonoma County vendors.

I requested he find a place for these mossy bricks I found in my yard.

He rescued the enameled cast iron farm sink somewhere for cheap while on one of his reclamation pick ups.

Cabinet Door Experiment

2016-01-24T10:08:00.002-07:00

I rent, and therefore can do very little to change the appearance of the circa 1975 oak cabinets in my kitchen. Can't paint, can't stain, can't replace - so I am experimenting with just removing the doors. This allows me to micro-manage the staging of my kitchen stuff and take advantage of my obsession to have everything covered in ridiculously bright patterns.

BEFORE:

AFTER (5 minutes to remove doors, two hours to stage the contents):

These are the only shapes of coffee mug I can stand (I got several new ones from my mom for Christmas). Yellow floral serving tray and bowl are Rosehill Pottery (artist Maddy Fraioli is a family friend). I also have a set of colorful, older Fioriware plates passed down form my mother.

Candy apple red mixer care of my Step-mother this Christmas.

We get lots of freebies to try from vendors trying to sell my husband goodies at his restaurant. These are Blood Orange and Basil infused Olive oils made here in Petaluma (O Olive Oil & Vinegar).

Dorothy Dandridge

2015-09-24T12:12:00.001-06:00

Little Boys' Room Makeover

2015-08-23T13:20:00.000-06:00

Here is my littler boys' room make-over. It is shared by a 12 year old and an 8 year old, and the previous bunk beds made for a crowded footprint, with no room for a desk. I started out asking what they wanted for a color scheme. There was already a dark purple wall, and, believe it or not, that's what Monkey #1 wanted to work around. "And add orange". Yikes. OK....

I sanded the drawers of the existing white, vintage dresser (roughly) and stained them chestnut. I spray painted the insets and legs the signature orange the older monkey requested. I corralled the plushies into a "zoo" on top.

My husband built loft beds, stained chestnut. He engineered them to be attached to the studs, so they have absolutely no wiggle and can withstand the weight of future teenagers.

I spray painted a huge box on casters for all of the lego insanity.

I repainted an aqua bookcase from my older boys room white (white was the only way I could figure out how to bring the purple and orange together in palatable way).

I repainted a black desk and a wooden chair from my older boys room white. I spray painted the handle orange.

I googled "Old school Nintendo oil paintings' (because that is how I roll - I want what I want) and bam! Old School Nintendo oil paintings.

I also repainted their old red bookcase white. Note: there is one corner of the room I'm not showing, because there is a flat screen TV that will be mounted on the wall, but is now sitting sloppily on a purple dresser. Monkey #3's railing is also missing in these pics, but goes up later today.

Big Boy's Room Makeover

2015-08-01T14:39:00.002-06:00

Here is my older son's room reveal.

Here is a link to the Pinterest board I used for inspiration.

For the Pipe and Board industrial shelving I started from the tutorial found here. But please note: THIS WAS NOT EASY!! Even with very careful math and a carpenter (my husband) collaborating with me, this project was tedious and took a LOT of trial and error and teamwork. Although we could not get the kind of perfection I had planned for, it still looks great, and is very sturdy and functional. It had to be strong enough to withstand the wear and tear of a 6 foot 2 fourteen year old.

the biggest help I can give you is the source to buy these pipe fittings online. They're almost 1/3 the price of what you find at the hardware store (and have free shipping).

Maybe you remember this old thing (already painted once). This time I used a matte navy and sprayed the hardware copper for a look that will hopefully last him through high school.

I re-purposed a lampshade I had previously in the family room, a re-used his Japanese print from years ago.

I made an orb from old embroidery hoops (I went through an embroidery hoop phase and have a cajillion.)

I had an extra piece of pine from the shelves once all cut to size - so I made a bracketed nightstand.

The Mason jar lights were the brainchild of my husband. Adding them complicated things a little, but in the end they are pretty spectacular. I painted an old boombox my son had bought at the goodwill to look quasi-retro.

Because he is into Japanese things I hung this vintage Japanese world map from the 1800's (with Japan as the central focus).

I used more embroidery hoops to display old T-shirts.

Dusty Luxe

2015-07-06T17:19:00.002-06:00

Follow Fine Fettle Guide's board Dusty Luxe on Pinterest.

A Certain Palette

2015-07-06T17:17:00.001-06:00

Follow Fine Fettle Guide's board A certain Palette on Pinterest.

Boys Room Make-over - Teen Edition

2015-06-26T17:14:00.000-06:00

Maybe you remember four years ago when I re-did the boys room (click for that blog). Now they need a rehaul that will get them all the way through High School. Once again they are gone for the summer, and I can do whatever I want to update both their rooms. Here is my inspiration I'm starting from.

Big guy's room:

The Two Little Guys' room:

Retro Rosy

2015-01-16T17:02:00.000-07:00