Well, I s'pose it would go without saying that I am an eco girl at heart... and being an eco girl who makes things out of stuff, I try very hard to make that stuff sustainable. I have been reading an interesting article in my search for organic silk threads, and I thought I would pass a bit of it on to you. I have long known that silks are, while obviously a natural fibre, not very ethical in terms of production. Many many poor little worker silk worms meet their demise when in the employ of silk manufacturers. I did not, however know that the original silk worm (who just happens to go by the uber cool name of Bombix Mori) has been so domesticated that they are actually unable to live without the aid of their human masters. Very interesting...

“With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown” – Ancient Chinese Proverb. The finest, most desirable silk comes from the mulberry silkworm, which is actually a caterpillar and not a worm. Known as the Bombyx mori by entomologists, the mulberry silk worm is a fascinating but tragic bundle of insect life. Raised by professional keepers in China on trays of mulberry leaves a thousand years before the Roman Empire when wild tribes were roaming Europe living in stick and mud huts, the mulberry silkworm has been totally domesticated and can not live without humans for their care and feeding. There are no wild silkworms or Bombyx mori moths that roam and feed in the wild.


Across several thousand years of captive breeding, the Bombyx mori evolved into a blind moth that cannot fly and lives only a few days during which it lays about 500 eggs and then dies within four or five days. The silkworm moth has even lost the ability to eat because of undeveloped structures within their mouth. "

The rest of the article can be read here. It is a good thing to realize just what goes into these things that we take for granted. There is a reason that things were once considered for the use of royalty only. Not that I am supporting that concept at all, but it is an interesting place we have come to where we now have access to so much that some things just don't even seem special anymore.

Anyway, on the note of extravagance, I am very near to my super stellar birthday bash which seems to have taken on a Marie Antoinette theme. I am bringing "Let them eat cake!" to a whole new level. I am renovating my studio and have decided on a rather parisian confectionary look to the entire thing. Much flocked wallpaper and girlie colours. You may as well enjoy where you work! I live in a very tiny one bedroom apartment with two boys and simply cannot do it in my closet, so I rent a studio across the street (I live downtown) and am now very excited! Photos to come...

Just a quick hello!

Here is another one with no pics cause it is just such a sloooooow computer I am hijacking. I probably should go and get some lunch. Anyhoo...

I watched another movie that I have to share titled "House of D". It has David Duchovny in it whom I am not a huge fan of, but I LOVE Robin Williams so I picked it up from out local aforementioned AMAZING video shop. Have I mentioned? Anyway, it turns out that neither of them are a huge part of the movie and that it may never have even made it to the big screen because I can't find anyone who remembers it.

The story is one of those that has a bit of everything, some laughing, some crying and a bit of laughing through tears which I believe makes it a chick flick. Don't worry though, not in a J-lo or Jane Austin kinda way. The story revolves around the childhood memories of Duchovny's character as he approaches the "becoming a man" stage of life at 13. He is played by a charming lad whose name I don't know. His best friend, Williams, is a challenged forty something year old who makes for an interesting sidekick. I don't think I will go fully into the plot because I think everyone would take something different from this flick, but there are great characters played by Tia Leoni and Erica Badu who really bring the whole thing together. Not life altering or anything, but a really good solid story.

On another front, it will be my birthday at the end of March and I am gathering ideas for it using (what else?) wedding magazines. I feel that as I have never really celebrated a proper birthday party I will put some effort for this one and so far it is coming together smashingly. If anyone wants to contribute ideas, please let me know.

Invitations... hmmm... well let me see if I can get a photo or two downloaded here.

Oh so sad... I can't get it any bigger. But they are in a magazine called Creative Weddings out of Australia. SUCH a fabulous photo spread with a Marie Antionette bent with such a cutie as the model. I am thinking to do flocked paper if I can find it online. I collect pink pressed glass dishes so I am going to lay out a crazy amazing desert table. I may even run with the Marie Antionette thing and do my hair up like hers. A few feathers never hurt anyone...

Gotta go, lunch is over and my course instructor is giving me some sort of eye.

This is getting fun...

At my sister's house. Just finished taking photos of my new pretty things. Thirty seconds on the computer. I know I said I wouldn't make a habit out of this, but I still want some feedback from your fabulous heads. I have finally started to figure out some new designs. Maybe. What do you think?

PS I forgot to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR last post. Not intentional, I don't type well under pressure. I imagine you are starting to figure that out. New computer asap, I promise!

At the movies. Many Thumbs UP

I have been bringing in the New Year one movie at a time. Here in Nelson we are lucky enough to have a rather broad range of movies at our local rental shop. It is kind of a pride factor for us that we spend a lot of time rubbing in our city friends' faces with " Oh, you really should try to track this down," knowing full well that Blockbuster or whathaveyou thinks that foreign means something involving Gerard Depardieu or Tom Cruise's Last Samurai. Anyhow, I digress...

I just finished "Roi de la Coeur", or King of Hearts which came out in 1966 and bombed in France. I would suggest perhaps that it wasn't very PC at the time to point out how ludicrous certain behaviors are in wars. (A year later it was released in the US and became an instant cult classic, running for five years.) The war has just ended and the Germans are leaving a "surprise" as they pull out of a small town in France. A local overhears the plan to blow the town sky high come midnight the following day and sends word to the approaching "good guys". The poor soldier chosen to diffuse the situation, Charles Plumpick, accidently leaves the gate to the assylum open when running from the German soldiers and sets the scene for a bit of a walkabout by the colourful inhabitants. As the townspeople have already evacuated themselves, these crazy characters are free to explore their "true" personalities with the "real world's" props and costumes. What a fantastic pageant ensues that truly blurs the lines with regards to what "crazy" really means! See this movie.

"Enlightenment Guaranteed" is the (subtitled) story of two German brothers lost in Tokyo ofter drinking away $600 (or possibly pounds) in a downtown bar. In this case lost refers more to their spiritual state than their geography, although the fact that they can't find their hotel by a longshot leaves them sleeping in cardboard boxes for the night. The one brother has been left by his wife and kids and can't for the life of him figure out why, although it is obvious to everyone else. The other is desperately trying to find a zen way of life by sitting on a meditation cushion daily. They spend some time in a monestary in the end that shows both of them what they have been searching for in a rather refreshing sense. A really beautiful story that has some of the funniest bits I have seen in a long time. (Sidebar: LOVE Ulwe's home, right down to the coathangers!) See this movie.

I don't have time to write about "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" but don't see the movie. Read the book. Then see the movie. It is so beautifully done. I am going to track down the book now online and read it. Then I will write about it next time I can take a computer hostage.

To Market, To Market We Go...

So, I make pretty things. Well, I think they are pretty. This would be why I make them. I make pretty things for living spaces out of eco friendly stuff. I LOVE fabric and the best kind is the kind that isn't covered in formaldehyde. You might be surprised to find out how much ickyness goes into the fabrics that cover your home and body. But I am not into preaching, I simply intend to infiltrate as many houses as possible with my eco-warrior ideas via pillows and linens.

I am not going to make a habit of posting my own stuff, (cause there is a chance somebody would tell me it isn't as pretty as I would like to think,) and normally wouldn't... but I am doing some market research and want to ask people that I don't know or rather, who would tell me some honest things. I need some questions answered. So I am posting them here because... well I don't really know how else to do this. I thought about standing out on the street but quickly dismissed this as a) it is friggin cold out this time of year, and b) I am looking for people with good taste AND who put at least a smidgen of thought into their nest. That rules out a good percentage of Nelson. I love this town, but home decor is not really at the top of important things around here. Snowboarding, drinking good coffee and a crazy vibrant arts scene yes... sofas, no. And it woud be hoped, that you, dear readers (all three of you at this point, lol) are at least a bit interested. Definitely you are stylin, or you wouldn't be here, right? Hahaha... yes. Well.

So. Some Questions:

1) What was the last thing you purchased for your home that was of a decorative nature (ie, not a lightbulb)?

2) Where did you purchase said item?

3) Roughly how much did you spend?

4) Do you consider the purchases that you make for your home to be well thought out, impulse buys, "I only buy what I absolutely love" or filler (like as in, "I need a pillow for my sofa. Oh, here's one, I'll take it.")?

5) Do you ever purchase anything (that is not "safe to buy without actually seeing up close" like CDs or books) online?

6) How important is the eco-factor in your purchases? Mucho, kinda or not at all?

7) How often do you "upgrade" the look of your abode? Are you the seasonal type? Or have you just decided on a look and stick with it? Or is your space a collection of items from the past decade that you have added to a bit at a time?

8) Wal-mart, Anthropologie, Hermes or the artisan market?

9) Are you sick and tired of answering questions yet?

I cannot tell you how much it means to me to get you to answer these... :)

THANK YOU!
(PS. Yes, Bee, the bee was inspired by you!)

Runs with scissors...

Holy Freakin' Cow! The effort one must put out to find a few minutes on a computer in this town! (Cows are holy by the way, it is OK to say that.) My computer has, it seems, fallen into the vast nothingness that is the office of the only Mac guy in town. I sent it by way of sneaky-like-spy through a friend of a friend who he owes a favour to and it STILL has taken weeks and weeks! Not a very big favour obviously. So frustrating!

I keep seeing things during my wanderings (like this...



...and this...)

Christmas tree made from coat hangers and snow of crushed glass...

that make me want to run to the nearest USB cable and download, but it just doesn't work that way in such a town as Nelson. I have even resorted to cleaning my house to keep my mind off blogging! Did I mention the cow? The holy one? Yes, like that.

I will have to continue this the next time I can steal time on a machine. It has taken so long to download these photos and whatnot that I must now depart. Ack! So soon! I have barely written anything and I have so many things to chat about! I hope you are all out there feasting your wallets on craft faires and markets! Indie and handmade are our mantras this season (as should be every season) and I will be bringing you some lovely ideas from my deeply camoflauged Martha streak soon enough! This year I combined a bit of Domino with a dash of Martha and taught myself how to make stained glass gingerbread. YUM! Pictures soon, I promise! Let's all keep our fingers and toes crossed that I get my little metal friend back asap! Till the next time, here's to more rum in your nog!

Head-lights.

Shhhh! I am being sneaky and blogging from a computer that I am not supposed to be on. So naughty! I am the only person on the planet who is actually good at crashing a mac. This would be my reason for being absent for what is seeming like forever... to me at least! I haven't had my computer for weeks now and it feels like an arm is missing...

I have been using my downtime (insert laughtrack here) to catch up on my other favorite activity, my magazine obsession. Always the most fun is British and Australian rags and I am just on Cloud 9 with all the hints of the Yule Season this year! (That is not PC, it's the word I have always used because I think it reads as a more well heeled and nature inspired version of Christmas.) I say hints because, strangely, what gets me all tingly are the sparkly candlesticks and trying to decide on a scheme for the abode.


This is not meant to be a post on Christmas decor, but it was this image which led me to the site of Honey & McAlpine where they have a rather interesting take on the trophy head trend that has been around this year. I quite like this idea although the prices are pretty steep. I like the garden sculptures as an ethereal ornament for all seasons, but the first one would make the most hauntingly beautiful focal point for outdoors in December. Not advocating the practice of blow up snomen and rooftop sleighs here AT ALL! We should get that straight. But I like this... and I like how the unadorned wire kudu disappear into the surroundings the way they would in real life. Like shadows.