Escapism...

I don't know if this is something that you do too, but when I'm trying to escape from something (situation, person, etc.), I craft. As of late, I think that I've been trying to get away from the weather. So, I've been hiding in my craft room (read: basement), and making stuff. Probably doesn't hurt that I have a new toy - my sewing machine died a rather loud and smoky death awhile ago, and I was lucky enough to find a Janome MC3000 very cheaply on Kijiji. I freakin' LOVE this thing, and am delighted enough to ignore much of my knitting UFOs for it. Besides, I need to get a head start on Miss E's summer wardrobe, yeah?


A spring skirt. I am desperate for colour these days, so I grabbed a charm pack (I think it's the Riviera line from Connected Threads) from the stash and improvised this. Hope that she'll actually concede and wear it...there may not be enough pink in it. *eyeroll*


More fun with the dye pot. Mostly gunmetal silver with a hit of blue. I think I'll call this one Katana. Same merino base as usual.


A knotted tulle tutu for the princess. I used this super easy tutorial, and if I have to make another one in the future, I'll definitely be using shorter sections of tulle. She was tripping on this one.


Ahhh, baby gifts. This one has still to make its way to the intended recipient...'cause I'm a lazy ass. But how awesome is Pirate Bootie? *snort* My first intarsia, and definitely a learning experience.


I've been trying to get away from using paper napkins at home, and here's part of that movement. Made from Japanese linen that's woven to show different patterns on each side of the fabric. Very cool. I've got a metric asston of different fat quarters of this kind of fabric, so you'll be seeing different sets eventually. I'm considering making some for the etsy shop, but really? I'm going to need to find my motivation first. I think I may have left it under the couch.

After a rather alarming incident at the library last week where I was caught without the stuff for a diaper change, I decided that I needed to make myself a diaper clutch to toss into whatever bag I'm carrying. I'm pretty sure that there's an easier way to make this kind of bag, but I was winging this. Very pleased with the end result, as it's just enough colour to keep me happy. Pretty sure that it'll be absconded with once Miss E's older.




And finally, Happy Birthday to Miss E. Yeah, I'm still in shock that she's as old as she is...it's all going by way too quickly. My sweet baby is two!!! Holy CRAP!!! Here she is, ready to dig into her cake. Plates? We don't need no steenkin' plates...

Dreamers...

I've been trying to figure out why this article in the NYTimes bothered me so much when I read it this morning. I think I have it - it's the part where the girl's agent states that “There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity,”.

Seriously?

It's not so much the fact that the author essentially lifted entire pages from another book. Hell, even Shakespeare was accused of plagiarising large portions of his plays from Italian plays of the time. I think what is bothering me is that this attitude seems to be representative of the cultural shift towards a society where people lack any semblance of a grand vision. There's a mass settling for incremental innovation, and people seem to have lost the ability to develop really big dreams to build towards. There was a really good article in the Economist about the general lack of faith in humanity's ability to progress a few months ago - basically, people seem to think that we've come as far as we can...and that we're just treading water at this point.

This really worries me.

Hey, I'm all for mash-ups. Taking bits and pieces of culture and smooshing them back together in a new format is fun. Girl Talk amuses me to no end - picking out the few notes of an obscure musical reference is a great parlor game. And arguably, it is a creative act, but please people...the Mona Lisa, it ain't. So, I have to ask - how did we get here? Why are we so bereft of dreamers? Even those who are touted as artists seem to be content with simply reheating pop culture. I mean, it's been going on for awhile (Andy Warhol anyone?), but why are we so pessimistic about our future now, of all times?

It's a tiny understatement to say that we live in an era of change. I watched a great video on cloud computing the other day, and I honestly felt staggered. It's absolutely mind blowing to contemplate the social shift that we're about to go through. Here, you should watch it too.



What gets me the most is...why the hell are the majority of people willing to accept that we're stuck with what we have - and proceed to rehash it to bits - when major change is happening RIGHT NOW? Where have all the visionaries gone?