Free LuRay Makes My Day

I never intended to collect Lu Ray. It's a little too girly and delicate. Somehow, though, its cheerful pastel colors and whimsical shapes managed to win me over.
At first I would just gather it here and there when a reasonably priced piece would present itself, and slowly a collection grew. Believe it or not, all the Lu Ray in the top photo was found by Davis during two different trips to the dump. Some men might find it emasculating to scavenge such dainty pieces of porcelain, but Davis is secure in his manhood and he knows a good thing when he sees it. Now I just need to get him to build a Lu Ray showroom like the one in the bottom picture! It's from the April 2004 issue of Country Living - an issue that is so chock full'o'fabulousness that I still take it out to drool over from time to time (there's a pink stove in there that makes my knees go weak!). I'm afraid I don't have near the collection that that the magazine featured, but it gives me something to work toward.

Kitschy Katch-alls

I love planters - they're so handy, and they come in such fun shapes and colors.
The ones above hold the extra needles and hooks that don't fit in my carrying cases.
I love the scottie's expression in the picture below. He seems so shocked and surprised to find that a Brobdingnagian rabbit has lumbered onto the set of his photo shoot.

Small Town Excitement

We interrupt the barrage of pink to provide you with a very important announcement. Brian Eno is going to be in town this weekend for Pop!Tech !
I'm beside myself with excitement! Since I'm not actually going to Pop!Tech (technological cluelessness and poverty are to blame), I'm left with no choice but to lurk outside hoping for a glimpse of him. I think less than 10 people in the county have heard of him, though, so crowds on the street shouldn't marr my view.
Here's a video with him from his days in Roxy Music (he's the one on the tambourine and synthesizer who looks strikingly like Riff Raff). I do love me that 70s glam rock.


Here's a clip of him that's relatively recent, discussing his Music for Airports. It's rather funny.


And now here's a link to an online version of Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards that he developed to help with artistic dilemmas and blocks. The premise is that you ask a question, randomly select a card, and then apply the information it gives you to the situation. Some of them seem to be very art-specific, but others could work for any situation. They're pretty cool.

eta: I saw him! and it only took a couple minutes of active stalking. Don't worry, as a stalker I'm pretty harmless - I saw him, he sort of glanced my way, my face turned bright red and I ran away with my heart pumping loudly.

It lives!

Back in July I had a bit of a fiasco involving an attempt to reshape a hat. Had I known that some hats are held together almost entirely by water-soluble glue, I never would have given it a bath. Fortunately, the glue was still sticky, so I made a makeshift hat block and smooshed the "petals" back into place. When it was dry the fabric stiffener miraculously re-stiffened, and now it looks even better than it used to, although it did suffer the tragic loss of its veil which couldn't be saved. I don't know that it would survive a trip to Gladys and Morty's for a game of canasta, but it's at least durable enough to hang on the wall of my dressing room (it's the one on the far left).

Great Green Gobs of ...yarn

Some of you may remember that I pledged to clean out my drawers by refashioning the clothing they contained. Well, as you can see, they're all cleaned out!
The celebration has been a little dampened, however, by the fact that I totally cheated in order to do it. I'm ashamed of the lack of refashioning I've done - in fact, I actually think I've added more to the clothes-that-need-work pile than I've taken out. When it came time to resubmit my name to the Wardrobe Refashion website, I felt it best to decline.
I finally decided I was wasting valuable real estate, and moved the clothes to a little-used (and kind of scary) closet in the back of the house. I'm still deciding what pile of stuff is going to take their place. oh- while we're here, please take note of the ladder outside the window, a symbol of the constant construction zone that is chez Petula.
One thing that did get refashioned was a very ugly purple, yellow and pink sweater from the Salvation Army. I harvested the wool from it, something I find strangely relaxing to do. Then I dyed some of the wool using a Kool-Aid/food coloring combo (if you haven't tried this, go here for more info - so very fun!). Then I untangled the dyed and dried yarn, wound it into a 2-ply ball, and it's now in the process of becoming a scarf.
The yellow that's shown is just what was leftover - the amount that was dyed made a very large tangly pile that I'm kicking myself for not photographing.

Welcome to...

Mwaah ha ha ha haaaaa!!!!!

It was only a handful of Halloweens ago that I scorned trick-or-treaters, prefering to draw the drapes and horde the snack-sized candies all for myself. I don't know what caused it, but eventually I came to the realization that Halloween was a fabulous opportunity to put on a costume and construct an art installation (a term I'm using to pretend that I really am doing something with my Fine Arts degree). Now we set up lights, mannequins and props, and we subject the neighborhood to the ominous (and loud) strains of pipe organ music.
I prefer my horror to be of the classic sort (I'm not a Bride of Chuckie kind of a gal), so last year's theme was based on the delightfully asstastic film Plan 9 From Outer Space. The photograph shows the mannequin in the role that was played by Vampira, along with the re-animating hand of a corpse and some gravestones that pay homage to the film's writer/producer/director and its sort-of-star. I swear the gravestones looked much better in person - the flash seems to have magnified the difference between the paper the text was printed on and the blueboard "stones".
The plan for this year is to keep the same basic setup, but to add some more 50s B-movie elements. My dream is to have some flying saucers suspended overhead. Considering Ed Wood just used a couple paper bowls attached to a string, I'm thinking it shouldn't be too hard.

I'll leave you with a detail of "Vampira" and a cover from Plan 9 (click to enlarge).

What a great idea!

This was featured on the cover of a Spinnerin "Head Hunters" pattern book I recently received. Stunning, no? It even came complete with a poem:

"If you want to go out,
But, have just set your hair-
Trim your curlers with pompons
And draw an envious stare(s)!!"

While I would like to debate the wisdom of disrupting the flow of the poem by adding the parenthetical pluralization, I think we all know that bad poetry is the least of the jaw-droppers that we are witness to here.
I'm taking this lemons-into-lemonade attitude to heart. Next time I'm headed to the supermarket and I can't be bothered to change out of my pajamas, I'm thinking that I might update this idea by wrapping myself with a string of Christmas lights and periodically sounding an air horn as I wander through the aisles. It may be my narcissism talking, but I doubt the stares that I draw will be any less envious than hers were.

McCall 1929

These pictures are from the 1929 McCall magazine (back in the days before they added the possessive "s" to the end) that was a part of the recent Free Store bounty. I LOVE the nub-stitch hat that's on the left, and am considering pulling out my crochet hooks to make it.
This mag had some nice pictures, but was a little frustrating in the craft department. Pretty much everything other than the knit and crochet stuff required that you send away for a pattern. I definitely would not have bought it at the newsstand back in the day. It's sort of like Vogue Patterns sewing magazine - why would I pay money for a magazine that is really just an ad for patterns that you need to buy seperately? I'm much more of a fan of magazines like Burda that actually give you the patterns (granted the patterns are presented in a rather brain-scrambling manner, but at least they give them to you).
Fortunately, modern technology has given us the photocopier, so things like the embroidery patterns and placecards can now be reproduced and no longer require a self-addressed stamped envelope. I really like these placecards. They are just so quintessential 1920s (and I do so love the 20s esthetic), that I want to throw a party in their honor just so I can use them.
I'm also presenting you with an ad that exposes the tragedy of halitosis. This poor woman used to be the toast-of-the-town, but now the only one who will come near her is a caged bird who has no other choice. Use Listerine, and don't let this happen to you!