With the Breeze

Was just now watching Grease on VH1. This must be the 3rd or 4th time in the past month. The hilarity in the movie cracks me up the same or even more with each viewing. Plus I've always liked musical films.

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Nothing really new to share on the sewing front, but out of boredom and "blahness" on this chilly, wet Friday night, I put together another collage, this time of my recent faceless pics. All of these garments have been on hand for a while, and I'm sure I've written about them somewhere in my blog.

Gotta motivate myself to get back at it if in fact that's what I want to do. I'm just somewhere else right now. Right now. That could change by tomorrow or next week. I feel myself growing or evolving, and sometimes I'm thrilled and at others I'm exhausted from it.

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Nostalgic. :-)

Wow...14-15 yrs. ago. Time moves ooon.

peace!

Balance

I've posted before about some of my involvement with children and education, and lately a lot of my energy has been being geared towards that area. I'm currently tutoring a home schooled 10 yr. old in the area of reading comprehension. Brilliant child, excellent reader, and, as it turns out, he's actually pretty good at comprehending. So why am I tutoring him? Well, he doesn't like to read. He'd rather play Halo 3 (a game he had to school me on, further showing his comprehension capabilities.) So, when his mom is trying to go over lessons with him at home, he acts as though he can't do them. I got this admission out of him the other day after we'd gone over three stories and he read and comprehended them perfectly. Additionally, when we were done, he brought to my attention how one of the stories we'd read was very similar to one we'd read the week before...then went into full detail about the similarities. So, yeah. I'll be reporting this to his mother.

This week I helped another 10 yr. old with a social studies project. He wasn't going to do one, because he didn't have anyone to help him. He wanted to do it, but only had two days until it was due and just didn't have the assistance he'd need. If he was intending to do a project, he'd also have to turn in a 250 word essay on it complete with footnotes and a bibliograpy. Well, I'm all about the subject of social studies and specifically history. I also enjoy every opportunity I get to cut, glue, color, draw, and help out a true, sincere person, so I was game for it.

Initially I'd thought that he could do the project on Elijah McCoy, and I'd come up with all these ideas on how, in addition to his background and history, we'd find instances from tv, movies, and music where the phrase "The Real McCoy" had been used. I had it all planned in my mind. Well, that was before I found out he already had something in mind (I'd just assumed he hadn't). He wanted to do the project on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

(That's some dark green, shiny fabric on the two side panels. My idea of course!)

My first thought was, "Oh noooooooo!" (lol!) That was only because I knew at least three others would do theirs on Dr. King (turned out to be five), and also because Dr. King's life and work was so vast, and it might be a challenge to narrow it all down in such a short period of time. Of course we'd have to do research, come up with all sorts of information, type it up, etc. So then I came up with the idea of picking out one aspect of his life and focusing on that. We agreed to focus on his involvement with the Montgomery bus boycott.

I wanted the end result to not look like I'd done all the work. Ya know, more fifth grader-ish and less grown up-ish. In the end, we both felt as though we'd struck a good balance, and I was pleased that I was able to successfully control those scorpian urges to take complete control! My only regret is not putting somewhere near the title "Dr. Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Bus Boycott." That thought only came to me after we'd finished and then again after I got to the school and saw the criteria that they were being judged on. Turns out I was asked to be a judge.

I made it known that I'd helped with one of the projects. It wasn't a problem, though, because his wasn't in either of the categories I was to judge. But one of the questions that was asked was something like, "Is the subject clearly stated?" Looking back on ours, it really wasn't. If one read the information on the left panel and looked and the pictures on the right, they could find out, but it wasn't necessarily clearly stated. *Sigh* Ah well. I'm just happy that I was able to help him participate in the event.

The title of the project, "The Right to Protest for Right", comes from a quote made by Dr. King during his involvement with the boycott:

"The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right."

It can be seen in the middle of the right panel in the handwriting of the student.

I'm still contemplating the quote as a whole, but I do like the last part.

peace!

Wild Wild West/We Live

*Grinder was great. A success on all fronts.*

*Moving into more arenas with my sewing.*

*Been juicing like crazy. Mostly green juices. Working out some issues.*

*Have had no time to mess with my hair, so it's been wrapped up for nearly 3 wks. in various scarves.*

(Just showing off my newest one which I've been wearing out since receiving it as a gift a fews weeks ago.)

*Sending my love and support to those in Haiti.*

*Being so in love with Sade's new song.*

peace!

On the Grind

Saturday I'll be showing some of my work at the local, awsomely amazing Grinder event. I won't be doing a fashion show this time around, cause it's just been too cold for me to even begin putting one together. When it's cold like this, I can only do the basics: put prices on the clothes and show up and hopefully sell them while watching the live art show. Any sort of organizing and planning of a fashion show is just not feasible. Brrrrr. I move at a slower pace during these colder months. Maybe at the next (hopefully warmer) one, since I do enjoy doing them.

In lieu of a fashion show this go 'round, here's a clip about the event where you can see a few seconds of the show I did in '08.

Unfortunately they got me in the clip doing some funky walk, and not one of the other models who walked with a bit more enthusiasm.

You can go to two earlier blog posts for more on my participation in Grinder:

http://flytieonline.blogspot.com/2008/03/blush.html

http://flytieonline.blogspot.com/2007/11/now-keep-in-mind-that-im-artistand-im.html

And if you're local...come!!

3-8 pm Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010 (During Art Walk)

Nitetown located downtown Lafayette

peace!!

Faceless

I've actually got some after pics! Not that they're spectacular or anything, but in the past few months I'd post befores and never come back with the afters :-/. (Cause many times I'd be so exshausted after doing a project and so sick of looking at and dealing with it that the thought of photographing outcomes didn't come until after I'd handed it over to its owner.) But at some point I do intend to get some shots of these projects I speak of.

So, I did alter the outfit from the previous post, but I didn't wear it to the Kwanzaa event here in Lafayette. Instead, I ended up wearing it to the one in Baton Rouge on this past Wednesday night.

Most of the change came in the fit. I took both the top and skirt in a good bit to give it more of a shape. Although I did appreciate the sleeves and their fullness, I always feel like that style is too much for me. I like seeing it on other people but not so much on myself. I feel so tiny and drowned out when I wear large garments or garments with exagerrated features. (But I do love the large collar.)

I turned the bottom into a more fitted pencil skirt, then, when I could barely walked, I realized I'd went overboard with the tapering of the bottom, and I'd already trimmed the seam allowances down. So I ended up having to put slits up the back as well as on both sides. Overall, I'm pleased. The shape and style is more me.

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On another note, I'm going back to headless photos. Those who've been reading my blog from its beginning can probably recall a time when my face wasn't in every picture. Images were cropped from the neck down. Well, I'm going back to that for one main reasons: It takes a lot (ok...not a lot but enough) of energy to be making myself decent before taking the pictures so I won't be looking crazy. Many times I take pictures right after I've been sewing all day/night or shortly after waking. After one such session, my hair might be all over, my lips might be chapped, my eyes might be droopy or any other combination of unphotogenic (for my shop anyway) attributes.. This is not necessarily something I want to portray in my pictures. It's the difference between this...

(Had been awake for about 30 min.)

...and this.

Picasa makes it nice and neat. :-)

Happy "oh 10"!

peace!