Photo Challenge (kinda) Accepted

We've all seen those fabulous blogs where girls are able to post the "OOTD"--Outfit of the Day. I think my style, a bohemian beach bum mix, isn't too terrible, so I thought I'd try a photo challenge of an outfit a day.

Well. These photo challenges are not for the faint of heart! I couldn't exactly drag my lazy butt up to do an outfit everyday, so I decided to modify it by doing a big ol' outfit chunk. This first chunk is called "Winter Style" because...ummm...it's winter! I've also had a blast mixing my new Anthopologie finds in with the rest of my closet.

I've also really decided that I've got some go-to pieces: I'm obsessed with white tops. I have white blouses, T shirts, button downs, henleys...I love the simple white top with jeans look. There's something very classy about it. I'm not a big jewelry fan (other than my wedding bands), but I am rather fond of scarves and usually use them to pull a look together.

I also really like sweaters. Light, heavy...mmm, sweaters. What will I do when the weather warms up again?

And bottoms. I live in leggings, but when I wear jeans, I love me some Joe's, Hudson's, and AGs. I blame Orange County for corrupting my formerly simple tastes. Jeans used to be jeans...now they are labels. But cry as we might over the price tag of high-end items, they do wear well, feel great, and you really do spend less in the long run because you're not constantly replacing junky pairs of pants. If any theatre people are reading this, I'm always on the lookout for a good "theatre pant"--I need to be able to dash across the stage or do a split-leap or even a jete and my pants need to LAST.

Sounds like a great idea for a blog post: the functionality and practicality of a theatre practitioner's wardrobe...

 

 

The Last BURST of Creative Energy (part 1)

I wrote in the "UFO/Unfinished Project" post  about my holiday break giving me time to tackle projects. I tackled a few more, and thought I'd share!

Dodger was either climbing all over my projects, eating my ribbon, chewing on my laptop and finally just passed out!

(He's a good boy, my little sweet doggie!)
















I saw a picture a long time ago of a brown leather bowling bag with cute leaf embroidery. I apologize for not being able to provide the original source, but it inspired me to pick up my embroidery needle---haven't done that in years!

I found the bag for about $10 at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market. Seriously, if you're local and you've never been, you NEED to go! It's a huge flea market held once every month, with everything you could possibly think of, including carnival-style food and plenty of people-watching fun! (The hipster-domesticus mingles with the masses at these kind of affairs.)

Back to the project: I have long been in the habit of keeping embroidery thread on hand. It's awfully handy--and sturdy--when dealing with sewing repairs. I know, there is thin sewing thread made for that and I have that, too, but embroidery thread is almost indestructible for simple fixes.

This project, in the end, was less than seventeen dollars. Most of that cost was for the bag, I'll factor in a few bucks for the thread, and I did have to buy leather needles (you can get these at any craft store, $2-30. What a pleasant, fun project!

But just before I embroidered the bag, I did this sampler first:

This was inspired by the embroidered canvas at Misters & Misses but you'll see that I re-interpreted it. I am working on putting a wall display together and I wanted more than just the square shapes of canvas, which I opted for a sampler hoop. The fabric was left over from my wedding. Total cost: less than $8.

Everyone's seen the next project all over Pinterest, by many different folks, so I'm not bothering to cite this one:

It's a work-in-progress; I'm debating on whether or not to add fabric backing or to leave it open. The pictures are clipped using small and medium wooden clothespins (99 cents to $1.99, Michael's); the ribbon was my own stock and the lace I picked up from Joann's (price varies depending on what you want).

I also made this grocery list frame, which is currently laying on a table collecting dust until we figure out how to put it up in our kitchen:

The supplies are simple: glue gun, scissors, cardstock, ribbon, frame. I got the frame from Goodwill (this I highly recommend--you can find some great frames and other re-purpose-able items for great prices!). Total cost: $10, though that's a guess. I recycled cardstock from my wedding and used the remnants of lace from the larger frame project above.

I think the original was better, but mine is fine and will serve an efficient purpose. :)

This next project is an old one I did before my wedding. I repurposed old coffee cans into nice containers and ended up using them for the bridal shower, thank you party, and other entertainment-type events. They are great to hold napkins, utensils, straws, and can be color-coordinated as much as you like. Just be careful with the Xacto knife! 

(I am very flattered that my project has been repinned all over Pinterest!)

UFOs Sighted--and Captured!

Ever had so many UFOs (UnFinished Objects, also known as UnFinished Projects) that you've forgotten about them? (Hence, unfinished...)

It's been nice having some actual free time on my hands. I write 'actual' because usually my time is delegated out to projects far in advance: directing projects, school projects, work projects...so my art projects get wedged in between, wherever they can fit. As a result, I start a lot of projects...but don't finish many of them!

I'm making an effort to change that, as part of my philosophy of living a loving, beautiful, adventurous life. I think many folks listen to the yawing and jawing of society and relegate art to the "unnecessary" and are afraid to venture out into it. I've been thinking a lot lately about what Paul McCartney said about his own painting; he said, in Barry Miles' Many Years From Now, that the only person holding him back from a canvas was himself. He thought, for a long time, that one must come from an art school background in order to set brush to paint. When he threw that false idea away, he started creating work for himself--and enjoying it.

I think the lesson there applies to anything in life; Paulo Coehlo's excellent The Alchemist is a testament to that. (Okay, in the larger sense--if one wishes to pursue one's life passion, one should. The baker wanted to travel but decided he needed to save up for a long time first, in order to visit Africa once before his death. He could have left at any time, and spent a whole life traveling, versus saving everything for the one-time only event.)

Well. All that said...I threw out my negative thoughts and got busy.

I started with a painted address pot first, inspired by a post on Pinterest (the original site is here.).

This was a fun, relaxing project and fairly simple to do. I had an extra flowerpot that I thought I'd repurpose into an address label for our apartment since you can't see our apartment number when the screen door is shut. I looked up fonts (on my iPad, it makes it easier to work with than a laptop) that I liked and using them as a guide, freehanded the letters onto the pot using pencil. Having done that, I went back and inspected the computer font and looked for details my hand missed and tweaked it. Next, I painted the letters in white, using a brown-black mix I made to shadow the letters. I painted three leaves in the top right and bottom left corners with little squiggles for fun.

I let it dry for a bit and then used Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer to seal and finish it (the pot is going to sit by the sprinklers so I didn't want to risk having my hard work undone!). I inserted a smaller potted flower and voila! the project was no longer a UFO in my mind but a real, finished one at last.

After that, I repurposed my old CPK manager's apron as a painting apron. This is amusing because it was hanging on a nail in the kitchen in Planet Hulk and Patrick, a director friend of ours, spied it and begged to use it in a current stage play. He had just returned it, freshly washed, and now I was going to destroy it with paint. Better paint than pizza, eh?

The monster was inspired by a cute figurine on Etsy that I admire (but has been sold), so I thought it would be fun to paint my own monster. The mason jar with flowers was inspired by our wedding, in which we used mason jars...well...for everything--as vases, drinking glasses, take-home gifts. I had yellow sunflowers in my bouquet as well as in the floral arrangements and the verse is from Song of Songs 3:4. 

Again, I Googled fun fonts and wrote in pencil, before inking it in. I used Faber-Castell pens to do the lettering instead of paint; I felt that the impreciseness of the flowers and vase were balanced out by the stark cleanliness of the black ink.

The last one was inspired by a pin on Pinterest (original artist's site here). I added some text, based on another font I found, and added a girl. I used acrylics, watercolor, and pencil--ordinary school pencil. 

My sister told me that the text is from a song; I had no idea. I was looking for a good quote to go with it, so I literally Googled "sky and star quotes" and I saw "If you'll be my star, I'll be your sky" on someone's Tumblr. I'm really pleased with how the last one came out. The original is beautiful and wonderful, but mine is very personal: using the watercolors, I made the boy Kevin and the girl myself (complete with ever-present braids!) and...well, you can infer from there. :)

I also just finished a project I've been working on for several weeks, if not longer...This is the third scarf I've made of this pattern and the first one I get to keep. (The pattern is here.) I made the first one out of really great teal yarn (Super Saver teal from Wal-Mart...probably the best color and sturdiest yarn I've gotten from there so far. They have Super Savers in other colors, but they don't compare to the teal.) and gifted it. My sister happened to stop by during that time and asked if I would make her an infinity scarf. Using the same pattern, I did.

My sister, wearing her infinity scarf

I liked it so much, I made one for myself, out of Malabrigo Indigo yarn:

Malabrigo yarn is my newest yarn obsession. I picked some up in a tiny yarn store in Missoula, Montana and just fell in love with it. The colors are vibrant and the yarn is so soft and flexible. I've made only hats out of Malabrigo because I love the stretch it has, so this is my first scarf...and I think I will make some more!

Here's one more, I finished this last night:

This one is a popular pin on Pinterest. It's straightforward enough: aluminum wire, yarn, scissors. You twist the aluminum into the 'love' shape--THEN reshape until you are satisfied BEFORE you cut. (They don't give you much aluminum in a roll, so it's best to be careful!) Don't worry about connecting the letters to themselves--you'll tie them together with yarn. I used Malabrigo again, in the color Archangel (like rainbow sherbet) in the fluffy style of yarn they call Rasta. The wrapping was the trickiest part; there's no special way to do it other than slowly and carefully because it gets tangled really fast. Other than that, know your beginning and knot your end, trim, and done! Instant gratification projects rule. :)

Oh, I love having this time to finish these UFOs...I also finished unpacking and putting together my craft table, so there will be more fun to come!

The next project I would like to tackle is not an UFO, but just one I've wanted to do for a while but just haven't had the time to: 

It's from a new blog I've stumbled upon called Misters and Misses. Considering the fact that I turned in two Teacher Performance Assessments two days early in order to see Mumford & Sons, I think I need to do this project!

With my friend Kim...and Marcus Mumford!
Hollywood Bowl 2012

Stay classy, stay cool...stay crafty!

Best,
Lissa

Hibernating in a California Winter + Some Thoughts on Happiness

We have nothing to complain about here in Southern California, with sunny days that have just the barest hint of coolness...it's a beautiful life. I was just commenting to someone yesterday that in my travels thus far, I have not found a a substitute for SoCal.

What makes it doubly (and infinitely!) nicer is that Kevin and I have just moved in to our own apartment home. We were previously living in a house with two other guys...literally, my life was like that series "New Girl":

I am a theatre director/elementary school teacher (candidate) who wears Anthropologie clothes almost obsessively (hey, a girl has to know her style...and rock it!) and has a tendency to burst into random song. I've never seen the show, but from what I have heard and read, that's Zooey Deschanel's character. Maybe I should watch it sometime to see how she likes living my life...

In my pantry-turned-office at Planet Hulk.
Kevin put it together so I would have an allergen-free place of my very own.

Kevin is a theatre director and theatre professor, and our other two roomies (who I'll call Bob and Bill) were a lighting designer and a director of photography for film. A very talented house, but where's my sit-com? It must be in development hell...

Bob liked his lady friends and we joked about the "train" that ran through the house we lovingly called "Planet Hulk" (in reference to the terrible tempers of the household). Bill lived in the garage with his admirable movie collection; I always referred to him as "Bill-who-lives-in-the-garage", hyphens audibly included.

We also had Max the cat, Dodger the dog, and Jojo the chinchilla to round out our happy family. Mind you, this was a two-bedroom, two-bath deal...and old to boot. We had our own monster living under the house, who shrieked and groaned in the pipes any time SoCal weather hinted at coolness; doors had an awful habit of coming off of their hinges so we had several curtains as substitutes. We roasted in summer and froze in the winter. We were all terrified of running the ancient heater; what if the monster under the house rebelled and lit the place on fire? We had no idea what the old heater might do, so we all just used an extra blanket, or wore a sweater.

I finished my first placement of student teaching on December 14 and around that time, Bob and Bill moved out of Planet Hulk and the Shire (the garage). Kevin was wrapping up his teaching semester and I was wrapping up my learning semester. We got packed, painted the place, patched holes, cleaned...and moved out of the Planet and into what we now call "Casa di Slay" three days before Christmas. What a whirlwind. There was nothing for it; I don't recommend moving during the holidays but if that's the only time you have, then you make do. Kevin and I by that time were both on holiday break, so there would be no missed classes or missed work...miraculously, I got the moving days off of work from both The Playground and Anthropologie and with the help of excellent friends, we got moved out of the house and into the apartment. It was not a hard move, but we've got a lot of stuff. Kevin is nine years older than me, so he's had that much more time to amass more furniture. Me? I don't have furniture outside of a desk, a dresser, and a bed. The rest of my possessions are my library, my clothes, and my craft supplies. That doesn't sound like much, but when thrown into bags and boxes and you're only moving a couple of blocks and you think, "I don't really need to pack that up tight"--well, things can get a little messy.

On the 23rd, I was determined to at least put our combined libraries in order. I'm really proud of my work and I think, justifiably so. The library starts with all of our directing and script analysis books, transitions into stage management and design; acting and voice texts; one act plays and technical handbooks/textbooks; children's theatre; and then I made a shelf of any play that has a work it was derived from, for example, the play of To Kill a Mockingbird is paired with the book To Kill a Mockingbird. After that shelf, I alphabetized plays by playwright, and then had a shelf of stand-alone plays. I organized a non-fiction section and then transitioned into fiction.

It took nearly five hours, but I'm proud of it. I couldn't fit any of our Shakespeare texts so I started a completely different shelf, which is the A-frame to the very left.

I've been pinning on Pinterest, observing displays at Anthropologie, buying design books, crocheting and crafting...I want to create a "beautiful life" a la A Beautiful Mess or Lovely Undergrad but it is definitely a work-in-progress, rather like life itself. Kevin and I are so blessed that we are able to turn to each other and smile contentedly and say, "It's a great life, isn't it?"

We all have times where that is the one thing we wish we could say but we just can't. It's hard to be content, especially in our society where we are encouraged to be bigger, better, bolder. Have this car, live on this side of the hill, go to that school. It's one thing to be happy; to be content is a stronger choice.

Again, not having watched the show but knowing this, Jess in "New Girl" moves into the apartment, recovering from a bad break-up. I was in a terrible place personally when Kevin and I first started dating; I even warned him that my bags were quite full and I wasn't wanting to burden anyone until I could heal and recover. He just smiled and told me he was going to help me carry them...it wasn't an offer.

I finally discovered true love and happiness and glimmers of contentment then. I know it's cliched, and age-worn...but nonetheless true. Where there is a true meeting of mind, heart, and spirit...a beautiful life can happen.

I was intrigued by the idea of happiness and wanted to know more about it. Sure, I'd been a happy kid and a happy teen, but I did not know what it was to be a happy adult. I knew how to be a working and educated adult, I knew how to be pleasant and cheerful, but I was discontent at heart and couldn't quite grasp at this thing people kept calling 'happiness.'

I think Dodger knows what happiness is!

Whenever I'm intrigued by something, I read. I picked up several titles during this time, trying to understand this golden, sunshine-y, endless summer that had begun to reside in the very core of my being. What was happening to me?

I read Hector and the Search for Happiness, a Little Prince-meets-The Alchemist kind of sweet, lighthearted tale about Hector's search for happiness all over the world; I read Gretchen Rubin's ubiquitous The Happiness Project and decided that while I wasn't crazy about the book, her ideas regarding choosing happiness in one's daily life really resonated with me. I read half of the other here-there-everywhere popular book, Eat, Pray, Love, which I enjoyed but just never finished.

Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman really spoke to me; this is one I highly recommend. She is a famous children's author who was living a very high Hollywood society lifestyle and was brave enough to say that she wasn't happy. Her husband and the people around her didn't really understand that, so she began to travel and surround herself with people who did. She still lives a nomadic lifestyle, with no permanent address. Having toured with a children's theatre for thirteen months, with a mixture of homestays and hotels, I could appreciate, on a very basic level, what that would mean. Another great read was Yoga B***h by Suzanne Morrison. Oh, this one was a hoot and a holler. She's in a loving relationship that she feels vaguely unsatisfied by, which is the sub-plot of the main story about pursuing a yoga lifestyle first in Seattle, then in India. I was rooting for her the entire time, hoping that she would make the choice I realized I had made.

The thing is, ladies, sometimes we get ourselves into long-term relationships that are nearly marriages and talk ourselves into being happy and satisfied when we know that we need to break free and make stronger choices for ourselves. Maybe this applies to you, maybe it doesn't. I'll save further elucidation on this topic for a future post, but I want to share a few things from my all-time favorite book, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Annie and her husband Dr. Strong are many years apart in age but love each other tenderly. Through much exploitation, manipulation, etc., the Doctor is near-devastated because he has been manipulated into thinking his young wife is having an affair with her cousin Jack, who was her childhood sweetheart and much closer to her in age. Annie defends herself (admirably) and explains to her husband why she married the true love of her life versus a handsome, dissolute man of questionable character: "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose."

This explanation and appeal to her husband has the novel's hero, David, leave the scene with the words echoing in his head: he realizes that the young, beautiful wife he married in the throes of first love and passion is unsuitable to both mind and purpose but he resolves never to reproach her for the mistake he has made in marrying her. It is only later, as she is dying, that she reveals that now she will never live long enough for him to despise her, as he surely would have as time tested their marriage.

One of my favorite authors, L.M. Montgomery, remarks in her personal diary that there was a young man that she was much taken with, but she could not see their happiness extending past the first year of marriage, so unsuited were they in both mind and purpose. Her story didn't end happily, sadly...more about that in future posts.

People ask the question, is love enough? It was a fan fiction, of all things, that told me no, love isn't enough: "when there is not the same understanding of that love and purpose" which is a near-paraphrase of Dickens' Annie Strong.

We must find those who suit us in mind and purpose and spirit, not just passion. For that is when we get ourselves in trouble. Austen's Lizzy knew that Wickham was the wrong choice for her, and look what narrow escape she made in Pride and Prejudice! It's a scary thing, that thing called happiness, and it requires courage to choose it...and build upon it.

Returning to this Blue Castle kind of life, a Valancy and Barney living cheerfully and contentedly surrounded by their menagerie, we actually have a heater (!) and a dishwasher (!!). We've enjoyed reading by our fireplace (!!!!!!) and simply living our quiet life together. I don't return to school until the end of the month and I feel like this is the most I've seen my husband since we've been married.

The Artful Dodger dog asleep by the fire.
I think the animals are enjoying the move just as much as we are!

After organizing the library, we repacked to visit his mom and family for the holidays and we've been in recovery mode from packing and traveling and moving ever since. He returned to rehearsals yesterday and I am beginning rehearsals for a children's school show this week. He's directing Born Yesterday and I am directing Schoolhouse Rock, Junior as well as prepping for three productions of Seussical the Musical. I will be youth directing one, directing one Junior version, and directing the third. I humbly praise God for all of this theatrical work! I also have several workshops spread over the spring and summer, in addition to going back to school, writing my Master's thesis and two more Teacher Performance Assessments. It will be a busy time, which is why I am so cherishing this quiet hibernation and prep time.

Have a beautiful day and a "great life"!

Best,
Lissa