Is Flatulence Good Or Evil?

That is one of the questions I will be asking my tour audiences when I take them around the ICA. I love this building! The highest floor is a glowing box, and the wood on the inside is a really nice color gray. It is the first time I've seen a place finish wood to look like how it will be when it's outdoors, because the outside wood will weather naturally, and what color will it be? Gray! Those of my friends who need that one more excuse to come to Boston just to visit me, this new museum is another reason to come over, ok? I'll be your personal tour guide, and maybe one day in the nicer weather, we might be able to board a Duck tour and get to the museum!
Or get on the T and use a CharlieCard!

Tapping Card T Fare Info

When I was in Singapore, we used this system to get around on the bus and the train- it is SO EFFICIENT!!! Instead of feeding a card in a specific direction, which takes time and hand coordination, you just tap your card on the black reader. Simple. Functional. That's why I love Singapore.


Paris Fashion Show exhibit is coming to town!

So Exciting! At the MFA, there will be a fashion show exhibit on display for the next few months. For the first time garments from 2006 collections from Paris, shown in the Carrousel de Louvre, will be in Boston (?) And I'm sure none of my students know about this blog, so they won't have any clue that I'm going to make them do an assignment involving this exhibit, heh heh.

 

MFA Fashion Show 2006 Exhibit Link

And speaking of museums, yay for the ICA- it's almost done! December 10th it will open on the waterfront- I better start studying the museum tour guide book!

ICA Home Page

The NEW AF-Competition

So, in 2004 I entered my thesis project into a student fashion competition and became one of the 14 American finalists to go to Paris and show my work on the same runways that they use during Paris fashion week. It was a really cool, yet EXPENSIVE effort to go there.

This year, however, the AF-competition lost it's Air France/ Pffaff sewing machine sponsorship, so it's no longer a competition against students from 15 other countries. Instead it's just a US competition and my professor was actually a judge for the 1st round sketches- pretty cool, huh?
Not nearly as cool as the ASTOUNDINGLY AWESOME internships that were given to the 6 students who became finalists!
Imagine being an American student who won a chance to go to Belgium or Paris to study under the likes of Ann-Valerie-Nash and Veronique Branquinho, etc? These designers aren't well-known in the United States, but they are very innovative and edgy.
Check out the very nice sketches the students submitted for their entries:


   
• The Arts of Fashion Competition Link of Winners


  

Sister Wedding in Sedona, AZ

Sedona, AZ is such a very unique place- it's amazing such scenery exists in the United States....

Ok, for those who are curious about how my dress came out photos from my cousin:





It was a GREAT wedding- it had to be taken indoors b/c of rain! but after the ceremony, our banquet room displayed amazing views of Sedona and TWO cool rainbows. Congratulations, Mrs. B!

Mt. Ida Gallery Show

Yet again, I find a way to utilize the stuff I made for my master's thesis!

 

Mt. Ida College Faculty Gallery Show

I display half-sized versions of my thesis for the show, which runs on campus for about a month. It is titled "The never-ending wardrobe" and the mini-clothes are so cute. They show that the above pieces of fabric are a pattern for multiple garments.

Starting a new Job

I'm starting a new job in the corporate sector on Monday, and now I have an opportunity to either keep some really icky bad habits of a desk job, like snacking allllll day on evil unhealthy junk food, or having a really messy desk with an infinite number of inbox emails that pile up unsorted, OR I can clean up my act and be really organized, file everything so I can find it again, have only nutritous snacks around, and write everything down so I won't get overwhelmed- and delete emails as soon as I get them, if they are irrelevant. Where am I getting these things?
From the David Allen book that I got- "Getting Things Done"
Here's the website:
 David Allen Co.

If I never knew his book existed, I would be a serious mess right now, and still jobless. " Mind Like Water" hehe.

The Sew Sew Sewing Party

I hosted a "Sew Sew Sewing Party" yesterday, and four girls showed up- two with sewing machines, and all with repair projects or new projects to do- I had no idea that the afternoon event would go on for almost eight hours! It was a blast, and I got a chance to warm up into "teacher mode" (getting ready for next semester) and remember to be patient and think *backwards,* because it's REALLY hard to explain something to someone about how to do something when you are thinking too far ahead.
So, here's the inventory of accomplishments:
F. started making her apron, and I showed her how to set up her sewing machine, so she can stop making up stories about how it was yelling at her and biting her, and helped gain control of the little beastie.
N. hemmed some jeans.
A. hemmed some jeans and narrowed the hem of a top that she had.
and Ad. repaired some magenta spandex exercise pants, threaded my serger, and cracked a "V.hard" Sudoku puzzle in TEN minutes! no way!
And I started to hem some corduroy pants that I've been shamefully wearing in public in a half-hemmed state.
I think I will hold another one of these parties, so everybody can hem all of those wool pants that we don't want to look at yet because it's summer.

Simple Feeding Practices- The Steam Pot!

A couple of weeks ago, the local grocery store, "MB," had this crazy sale on live lobsters- $5.99 a pound, so I just couldn't leave the store without one- plus a bag of mussels, and corn and linguica (portuguese sausage) to go with it. And went home to make an indoor clambake:

Indoor Clambake Link

And I got to thinking, this is an easy way to make a whole entire clean, healthy meal without slaving away in the kitchen- put everything in a pot with an inch of water and steam it for 10 minutes or so. This is what I put into todays pot:
1 chorizo sausage (use some sort of meat item)
some baby red potatoes (for starch) cut in half
some carrots cut up in big chunks (veggies)
corn on the cob snapped in halfs (more veggies/starch)
Other veggies that would work:
Green beans
mustard greens
broccoli/cauliflower
any root vegetables
You cover the pot for about 8 minutes, and poke things with a fork to check how done things are. The corn is ready first, then the rest are ready in about 5 more minutes. The items are easy to take out with tongs.

Everything is cooked, but still bright, tender, and crunchy, and the sausage or meat product flavors the steaming water to make the veggies taste a little better. After you pull them out, you can salt and butter them to your taste.

And I had more than enough food for two people- YUM!

Sewing like a madwoman

I have finally decided not to procrastinate and in ONE DAY! finish off some of the things that I started in the category of "sewing projects" that have been sitting there for days:
-1 pair of long black knit pants
-1 pair of knee length black knit pants
-a pillow made from a shirt
-hemming my sister's dress
-replacing the elastic for a camisole
-a knit top
-an iron-on transfer for some pants

and I realize, that no matter what kind of fancy tools I have to do my sewing, I must practice. Sewing with knits is not easy, and today I was playing with a new serger, where sometimes my stitches can look either really nice, or really ugly and out of control. Like when I accidentally lop off elastic trim I attaching with the serger, cut by the trimming knife on the machine.
Some of the above items are probably suitable for in-home wearing only- so I won't be showing you what I made on this blog. But I really like both of the pants and will definitely be wearing them a lot.
Now the next mission is to teach my friends to sew...

The Disney Wedding!

Here is my cutey cousin M. arriving in Cinderella's carriage! check out the poor melting attendants in their wigs, and the short little white ponies.

Mickey was there too- and Stitch from Lilo and Stitch.



very cute, really unique- I had no idea I would be watching my cousin get married with mickey actually there!

The only sport I can watch consistently

I've been watching almost every day of the Tour de France, and I pretty much never bother to watch sports on tv. I just figured out why I like it so much- it's because it is one of the only televised sports that isn't contained in a stadium, but the gorgeous countryside of France. How wonderful is that, to see fantastic scenery and cyclists in pain at the same time! There are also lots of crazy fans dressed in funny costumes that get on tv while the riders pass by. Wish I was there....

Tour de France Link

Here is a photo of my little tiny bedroom garden. Mesclun greens are growing out of two containers, and I get salad our of them once a week. Since they are not outside, they are not as flavorful or colorful as stuff you would find at the store, but they are still quite tender and yummy, and free:

July 4th Weekend in Boston!

Went on a "Turnaround Cruise" to watch the USS Constitution turn around, so it gets even wear and tear when it sits in Charlestown Navy Yard all year round. This year they're turning it around a lot! C. will be on the actual ship in a couple weeks to see it turnaround again. It's pretty cool to be in Boston Harbor on July 4th- very packed with boats- we also saw cargo ships and the Queen Mary 2 and, I saw the ICA museum from the water.
So this is what we went to see:

And this is C. with the hah, "COWstitution" which we accidentally ran into along the way back to the T:

This is a photo of the Institute of Contemporary Art under construction to be completed in Sept:

And because I was so ridiculously tired from being out in the heat and water, I stayed in for the fireworks and saw this from my 4th floor window in Cambridge, lucky me:

The National Museum of American Illustration

Spend the weekend in R.I and went to a Newport mansion for the first time. It was the National Museum of American Illustration. It was open to the public for the first time this year. It is a very unique place. C. and I saw lots of very old enormously beautiful trees outside in the garden area, and a fairly elbaorate mansion on the inside, with many paintings meant for commercial art, like advertisements and magazine covers. Lots of Maxfield Parrish works- such fabulous stuff with amazing forms and colors.
I am huge Charles Dana Gibson fan, and was happy to see some representation there- not the best stuff, but a couple of pen and ink and a couple of paintings....
http://www.americanillustration.org



Above is the invitation that I designed and made for my sister's wedding- it is an October wedding, and it will be in Sedona, AZ, in the desert! It is in a booklet form with a vellum overlay and trimmed with marble paper, ribbon rose, and raffia ties. Note the customized "Zazzle.com" stamps! They will be arriving in her invitee's mailboxes this week, how exciting!

Chicago is the new "West Coast migration"

I am discovering a lot of my friends are returning to Chicago after leaving it for various reasons.
Some are even trying it out for the first time.
-H. and A. will be running the US operations of the family business.
-T. is returning home after his MLA is finished and his girl M. is starting a new Job with a major cultural institution.
-M. is on an urban planning internship.

I think I need to make a trip out there one day soon!

One reason to visit Chicago is to come to my alma mater, IIT on Chicago's south side and visit the Marimekko exhibit at Crown Hall, the architecture building:

http://mies.iit.edu/upcoming_events/#marimekko

Marimekko is a Finnish textile design company, famous for the much overused oversized orange poppy pattern in so many home textiles.

The IIT campus also has a new building that opened a couple of years ago designed by Rem Koolhaus that is truly entertaining to visit.

Conchens is volunteering

There is going to be a new building on the waterfront in Boston- it is the ICA, the Institute of Contemporary Art.
The building is going to be soooo amazing, and I can't wait for it to open.

http://www.icaboston.org/Home

Oh wait, I can wait- I just volunteered to become one of their drop in tour guides to show museum visitors the new building! I hope I learn enough to be able to say the right things. I also hope that my voice will carry- it has a tendency to disappear in vast expanses...
The other volunteers seem to be pretty neat too- I think that they are all interested in art, and are fascinated with the new building as much as I am. Having such a modern building w/contemporary art in a historical city like Boston may change things a bit.