Poor little chickie

Poor fledgling blog! I've been back over here much of the time, and doing some finishing touches on a six month long project. I've found loads more beautiful things, and will be back on here soon.

Inspiration in the form of a 1960's Television Witch

   Yesterday, after watching Betwitched for the first time in probably twenty years, I threw myself into a bit of a tailspin, totally fixated and in love with the interior design and fashion on that show. It's an era I don't think much about (mid to late sixties), in movies from that era and movies about that era I tend to focus on plot and/or the relevance of the historical event being represented. But when plot is a little thin and silly (as in Betwitched) I can detach myself and just view the design glory that was the set and costumes of that show. I'm not going to bore you or myself and dive into a deep examination of the design of the era, I'm just going to share some of the beautiful retro goodness resources that I have learned of recently. I've chosen to focus a bit of my search on the mid to late sixties, as it reminds me of family photos of my mom as a young adult as well as the decor of the interior of my grandparent's home. It's not rocket science, what I'm doing, just decent searches with lots of "" and + and relevant words thrown in. I do seem to have a bit of the eye for skimming past the sites that might not be "perfect" for me. 
   I just keep looking and looking and looking at this episode. The plot is cute and everyone's fantastic but OH MY GOODNESS THE BUTTONS ON the real Samantha's coat @ 1:45!! That green dress! That aqua chair @ 4:38! Total swoon. 

  Now with the rising popularity of Mad Men this particular aesthetic is starting to creep back into popularity (though it's always had its stalwarts). It's mid-century modern but the later edge of it (correct me if I'm wrong, design expert who might be reading this), less atomic and more 2001: A Space Odyssey (but a bit less "mod"). 
2001: A Space Oddysey Interior Set Design


Here's the "Best of the Sixties/House Beautiful. 
House Beautiful


Modern Dig, a site with rare and collectible Mid-Century Modern Design books and objects.
(I actually have this beauty)

TV Party! Classic television shows for those who obsess. 


Twenty Five pieces of Retro Design Inspiration from Vectroave. 
(courtesy Vectroave)


Retrospace, a well put together retro gamut blog (mainly 70's, but some 60's, too). 


Ultraswank - Talks about old and new influence of sixties design here. 
(Ultraswank - JFK Terminal by Eero Saarinens)


If you're looking for a more polished and professional inspiration source, The Mid Century Modernist is a sleek place to start. If you're just wanting to breeze casually through the era, and float onto green Astro-turf to your white wicker laced veranda, go to flickr and search "sixties" + "vintage" + "interior design" and you'll be treated to image collections from design lovers all over the world. 

Kicks to the head

    I know it might not seem like it but my time on the internet is blissfully limited now that I'm no longer working outside the home. I have a small person that I'd rather spend time with, and I might be online looking, researching, writing, and communicating but it's dotted time, not really focused. I'm constantly up playing games, have long times in between where I'm cooking, cleaning, organizing, teaching Xander, taking walks, riding bikes, giving time outs, creating forts, making art, doling out clay and paint, etc. etc. etc. Just as I'm writing this I'm holding an intense conversation about the dreams we had last night, and we're also discussing whether Yoda can swim or not. 
    Late, late, late in the evening I have more focused time, but by then my contacts begin peeling off my eyes and I'd rather turn to my more ethereal writing and haiku. I also work on a project that my husband and I are working on during the wee small hours. So my point is (though this is a wavering point because I'm still fielding questions about Yoda and am a bit distracted) that I squeeze a lot into a little bit of time. 
     Like all of us I need reassurance and guidance in my professional (ha) life, in my case writing. I hunt and gather different sweet smelling books, magazines, and websites to boost up morale and siphon advice and tips that I might not have known about. And of course, I'm fixing to share some of them here. 


Zen Habits: I have a blog crush on Leo Babuta. He's taken his personal life changing journey and turned it into an empire of simplicity. His articles are peacefully written and helpful. His Simple Links hop over to interesting places, people, writings, tips. His other blog Mnmlist hearkens back to the original blogs of yesteryear: simple and straightforward. His Zen Family Habits  offers practical and reassuring articles from someone who's really a parent, and is totally non-judgmental. You'll like it. 


Margaret Atwood's blog: Now I know that this might not do something for everyone. It just so happens that she's my favorite writer and it just so happens that she has a blog. It also just so happens that she offers tips and helpful advice from time to time and I love her even more for it. The Queen of Introspective Science Fiction (and regular fiction), the Poet Laureate of the Smirking People of the World is also an approachable, amicable, tweeting person. Check out her Ten Tips for Writer's Block. 
(Image Courtesy CBC)


Brainchild Magazine: If you're a mom or dad or caregiver who's ever felt a little bit preached to from all sides of the spectrum (Holy hell the scare tactics of Last Child in the Woods  and the Focus on the Family - how's that for two ends of the spectrum - and everyone else who blathers on and on about how we should be raising our children or the world will implode). Brainchild is smart. Funny. Subversive. Love. It. I need balance and slaps on the wrist back to reality daily and this magazine offers it all. 


Deepak Chopra - Chopra Center blog: I really love the "Laws of the Day". You don't have to be a spiritual person or anything to use these words of wisdom. Here's an example, The Law Of Attachment: "Today I will commit myself to detachment. I will allow myself and those around me the freedom to be as they are. I will not rigidly impose my idea of how things should be. I will not force solutions on problems, thereby creating new problems. I will participate in everything with detached involvement."
Of course we all KNOW this and it's not anything NEW but sometimes we need reminders and blows to the head to bring us back to balanced living. 


That's unfortunately all I can share today, as I have a particularly high strung kid today and it's taken me an hour to write a paragraph. Every 30 seconds some small disaster strikes and I am being called to active duty. 

Relations

     So if you're uncomfortable with me referring to the most human of our human acts, click out now. I'm not going to get personal tonight but I am going to spread some of the love around about everyone's favorite topic: sex. If we're related or you've known me forever, please be advised, I'm not going to get embarrassing here. Just sharing some of my favorite blue-toned jewels on the internet that I've been told about, found on my own, or learned about in Bust. 
     Now, breathe easier: I'm not here to give you potentially viral porn sites or preach at you about sex ed in schools. I'm not speaking clinically or ethically. I'm talking about the whispers and the cackles. Of a group of women or men (or a mix of both) in the corner during a party spinning yarns. Stories are what I'm interested in. Advice. What's odd and what's becoming blissfully more out in the open. Of blaze freedom and humorous teenage repression. The entertaining and the ridiculous. The everyday and the totally out there. 
     I'll keep this simple, people. I'm not shy talking about it, but I do respect that some of us have deeper puritan ties and feelings, but still like to read and think about it in a private, totally educated and curious manner. So without further you know what, here are my favorite places to read about real people, and their real sex. And wasn't that a great show (Real Sex)? 


Scarleteen: I wish this was around when I was a teenager. The internet was barely around when I was a teenager. Although we did have a kind of wonderful sex ed program if I remember, at least things weren't all hush-hush then - it was the nineties so it was open if not a little scary and clinical. Anyway, Scarleteen talks about anatomy, self-esteem issues, gay/lesbian/trans-gender/bi topics, periods, and frank talk about more serious sexual issues. It's an open, healthy, honest place and if you have a teenage boy or girl (or are a teenage boy or girl) it's a valuable SAFE place. 
Inside/Out - from Scarletten
Deflowered: Abby Kincaid has created a small empire around the stories that we women have about our "first time". There's been a live show, a blog, and if I had a crystal ball I'd wager a book in the near future. You can submit (anonymously or openly) your own story, and read well-written accounts from women from varying backgrounds. 


The New York Times: Oh yes I said it. Find interesting and academic tinged sex-related news and commentary by searching here. Oh, look I went ahead and did it for you! There goes your guilty conscience. There's everything from gender and equality issues in the US and abroad to book reviews to dissertations on the impact of everything from wartime pinups to The Arabian Nights on our collective psyches. Smart and sexy!


Savage Love: I know you read the column in your town's weekly indy paper. But have you ever strolled through the site? You'll find the archive of questions and answers, good links from Dan and links to other sex columnists, and miles and miles of comments to anger and entertain. 


The Frisky and Jezebel have taken the guilty pleasure of fashion rags and morphed them with online zines to create a gratifying, veritable treasure trove of advice, humor, and insight in all things women's sexuality. This is far from Cosmo, people. This is honest, groundbreaking, and fun. Fun is important! There's even loads of thoughtful and sociology-bent articles for those who enjoy their sex-ed more Kinseyan or Masters & Johnson-ish. 


Since I'm in that vein, here are links to those above-mentioned pioneers' respective institutes (or what remains or is being said about them, in the case of Masters & Johnson). 
Kinsey Institute
Human Sexual Response (Masters & Johnson's trailblazing study)


Le mariage païen. - Courtesy NYPL Digital Archives


Now listen. Most of these are safe, free-thinking, broad-based resources. We're all aware that the internet is rife with some dark things and some light things when it comes to sexuality (and everything in between). To foster a healthy attitude about what makes us who we are, these are decent "jumping off points". I'm particularly interested in sex on a sociological level as a lover of all things anthropology. I don't claim to be an expert and I know for a fact there there are more frank sites than these. As a general audience member, these are good though. If you want more, I have more! You just have to email me for them, as I know that my family reads this so I'm not letting on which ones I know about! So there you have it.
From the Kama Sutra 
(PS - I've read that Mallanaga Vātsyāyana, the Hindu philosopher who wrote the Kama Sutra, was a lifelong virgin...discuss)

Artsy Craftsy

Buried in the depths of my bookmark manager are the makings of a huge reference database of crafts and art projects for children that don't suck, so I'm going to share a bunch of those today. Y'all know what I'm talking about with the kids craft suckage - type in "crafts with kids" or "kids art projects" and in the google search bar and you're presented with a multitude of neon flashing, googly eyed, haven't been updated since the first Dubya administration monstrosities. So what's a caregiver to do? Well admittedly most of our "crafts" are thought up by yours truly, I seem to have always had a knack for the arts and the crafts (at least up to a sixth grade level) and am wise to the fact that most of the time if you present a kid with really good art materials (the basics which I'll list below plus some decent "grown up" supplies) and just let them go to town the outcome will be more enjoyable for everyone. 
So here are the basics that we always have on hand: 

1. Good paint (acrylic craft paint, about $1.00 - $5.00 at Michael's). The kids paint dries out so quickly and doesn't have the good "slip" that the grown up stuff does. Spend a little extra and invest - you'll save money in the long run! A good watercolor set is also a childhood staple. 
2. Loads of construction and good art paper in all sizes and textures. This includes recycled paper. We regularly dig into our bin for collages and other projects. Tissue paper from birthday presents is useful, too (as in the project I'll list below). 
3. Real paint brushes. These don't have to be expensive. Michael's sells sets of brushes starting at $10.00. They work so much better than the weird plastic ones that come with watercolors. Kids don't get frustrated by lack of ease of motion. 
4. Glitter. So much glitter. 
5. Elmer's Glue, pipe cleaners, yarn, googly eyes, buttons, wood beads, pom-poms. Just a collection of random. We put these into glass pasta sauce jars on our craft shelf so that we can see what's inside easily. We hoard everything and use it all. Milk bottle caps, used but clean foil, cardboard oatmeal canisters, craft sticks are also terribly fun to have around. 
6. Aleene's craft glue and a hot glue gun. When Elmer's just won't cut it. 
7. Mod Podge (for sealing and creating decoupaged collages)
8. Flour, salt, water, oil, cream of tartar - for making homemade playdough.  I've seen that folks are selling this stuff on etsy now, scented with essential oil. Erm, do it yourself! Half the fun for kids is in the making of it!
9. One of those big art kits marketed towards beginning artists and younger artists. We scored a HUGE unused one at a garage sale with pastels (also a MUST - kids love the smooth work they create with these) in a beautiful wooden case. They also have a good selection of art markers and colored pencils. 
10. Crayola air-drying clay. This along with a bunch of cookie cutters, safe age appropriate knives, forks, and other found tools provide at least an hour of creative entertainment. 
11. Clothespins. We use them for crafts, for securing forts, for displaying art projects, for aiding in yarn traps (yes, they're just what they sound like), for keeping the bread bag closed, for hanging clothes...We totally heart clothespins around here. Gary uses them in his line of work for securing wires and gels to lights (there's some sort of fancy film/video term for them too - bullets I think they call them. Film people are a strange lot). 

As for when I am sapped out of ideas, I usually turn to some of the beautiful blogs that I read anyway. These are traditionally coined (but not all) by other mothers of young children, and you kind of have to admit we're a force to be reckoned with in the idea department. Here are a few of my favorite projects we've done and websites we use.  

Ann Wood's 100 Horses Project:  This is a highly celebrated, simple project that creates objects of great beauty. We did just one each but managed to create little pieces of art that we'll keep probably forever. Here's a photo from her project:

Ann Wood

Kaboose: This is a fantastic resource for educators and caregivers. We always find great crafts and activities to match whatever we're thinking of or working on (or season we're in). I used this A LOT in the children's room. I think we're going to attempt this for an Earth Day related craft. We do a lot of "nature crafts" with things we've found on walks. Hot glue guns are essential for making little tiny houses and people out of sticks, bark, leaves, mountain goat fur...

Kaboose

Wisecraft: This beautiful little site offers pretty things every day, and a lot of it is kid-focused (and some just inspirational to spark your own ideas). I think we're going to try this doozy next. Xander loves rocks (don't all kids - don't all adults?).

Hot Rocks - Wisecraft


Natural Family Crafts: I've recently found this little site and there are some sweet, "Waldorfy" ideas on here. We do a nature table and stuff though we're not strictly "Waldorf" . Adhering to any set of rules or lack of any rules whatsoever bores us, so we usually use a hodgepodge of inspiration and create our own theories and dogmas. But anyway! We'll be trying this project out (a variation) this week with leftover tissue paper. 
From Natural Family Crafts

Here are a few I go to for a quick inspirational project fix: 

Soule Mama

Imagine Childhood 

Design Mom

Ohdeeoh
Mer Mag

Now go crazy, dump a bunch of art supplies on the floor, and go to it!


"Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." - Picasso

Friday Finds

Have you poked around the Criterion Collections' website lately? It's the berries! You can hop around their entire collection, and even download (for nominal fees) some of the older films. It's also kind of nice to play around on the site and then hop over to Netflix and throw some films you didn't know about or forgot about in your queue. If it weren't so early I'd be watching The Virgin Spring. But it is a bit early for Bergman, and I think my five year old would protest.

 Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring

Speaking of good films, the Maysles Brothers (Salesmen, Gimme Shelter) website is fun to explore. Just watched Grey Gardens the other night with my husband and he told me a bit more about their innovations and pioneering work in the documentary film vein. So naturally being reference library-brained I found Albert's (the surviving brother) website.                                                                         

 Grey Gardens - The Maysles Brothers

A few months ago I discovered photographer Peter Ross's website, specifically his still lifes of William S. Burroughs' things. William S. Burroughs was (if you're not familiar) one of the eccentric founding fathers of the Beat generation (he wrote Naked Lunch). Peter Ross has documented his odd collections, seems Burroughs has a fascination with guns, blowdarts and pinwheels. Check it out here.

 Typewriter, William S. Burroughs's Stuff / Peter Ross

I laughed myself silly over this photographer's work. Robbie Augsperger uses an old light kit to recreate the *ahem* golden days of studio portraiture. The Corporate Headshots page is my favorite, but this guy is pretty amazing too.  

 

                                                        

Italo Disco - 2009 Robbie Auspurger             

Here's hoping your weekend is thrilling, calming, trilling, and beautiful. I'm still writing at Controlling A Spicy Universe, too - if you're looking for some esoteric whining.

Peeping Dano

So, if you've been keeping up in the (ahem) "blogosphere" (I don't like that term), you might have heard that Dooce has been asked to participate in a White House Forum on Work Place Flexibility and that The Pioneer Woman has both a book deal (on top of her cookbook deal) AND a film being made about her romance with her cattle baron husband currently in pre-production. Starring Reese Witherspoon. Tell me again how blogs aren't influential or powerful forms of media? 
Now I'm happy for these women, I read their blogs I akin it to watching a popular television show after months of abstaining because it's too popular, too fluffy, too vapid. Then your friends at work KEEP talking about the show in the mornings in the breakroom so you watch just to see what all the fuss is about. You watch, and it's entertaining (but not really mind-blowing) so you continue to watch off and on just to join in the chit-chat. That's how I feel about Dooce and The Pioneer Woman. Of course my first, knee-jerk reaction is envy - isn't that what Augusten Burroughs said in Possible Side Effects? Something about his "default emotion is envy, followed by rage...?" I'll have to skim through that book again and find it. It's precisely how I usually am. Envy first (why not me?), followed by rage (That bitch!), then usually recognition and respect. And then envy again. 
I LOVE peeking in through virtual windows at people's lives that are different than mine. All over the world. I think that explains the appeal of the above listed ladies, we recognize bits of ourselves but also love peeking in the windows (even though we're obviously invited in) at another life. And the more photos the better. 
So, with complete acknowledgement that I am a lifestyle voyeur, here's a list of some of the blogs that I peek into. These are personal blogs, the journalistic ones that offer glimpses into daily life, humor, tragedy, joy, etc. Some are new reads and some I've been following for years. My prerequisites are that they have to be well-written and thought out. The following are just that. 


Scribbit: I've met Michelle in "real life" and she's a real down to earth sweetheart. Intelligent, articulate, and kind. She writes about a variety of things, from crafts to recipes to the meaning of it all. Right now she's in India and it reads like a beautiful travelogue. I first discovered her blog when we were contemplating our move up to Alaska. I literally googled "Reasons to live in Alaska", and a post she wrote popped up first. And it was written on my birthday!


Cosyactus: This is an icy gem of a journal (I discovered it through Imagine Childhood) about a small family in the very far North in Norway. It's written in English, and is a beautiful peek at a life that resembles mine in climate and motherhood, but so very different. Like a charming alternate reality. I love her post on local history in her new region. 


Imagine Childhood Blog: The proprietor of the thoughtful shop Imagine Childhood writes in a light, airy, sweet tone about life in the outdoors where they live in Colorado (on a farm with lovely horses, sheep, and goats). 


No Pablo Neruda: This beautiful Australian lawyer is a fierce poet. You'll be entranced. 


My Sewing Serenity: I found her when I bought some knitted dishcloths and soap on Etsy from her (I can't knit or make soap - therefore I am not the atypical blog mother). She lives in Ohio I believe (my home state), and I love peeking into her tres femme life. 


Sugar Boot and Weasel: I actually knew Anna Kiss years and years ago, when we were angsty coffeehouse teens in Dayton, Ohio. She's another solid writer, with two precocious (in a good way) boys. Her creative energy is kinetic, and I love watching what she's up to. She's totally honest as well, which is refreshing in the sometimes saccharine blog world. 


Judy's Journal: I found Judy through her daughter Oona's blog, Playing with Spoons. They read my other blog  and commented, so I did the natural thing and read through theirs. Both mother and daughter are artists, and Oona lives here in Alaska (I think!). 


Sweet Pixels: Another Alaskan blog, though she's much farther North than I am. Another artist, she writes about projects she's working on as well as the beauty around her. 


That's all I have time for now! But I have oh so many more. I think one of the joys of the internet is the ability to see people living on all sides of the earth, in all different lifestyles (really, these I've listed are a fraction of those I've seen and admired). We're able to connect with souls we'd never have the means (or reason) to otherwise.