Thrift Thursday - Swap-O-Rama-Rama

Who needs to shop when you can swap? This Saturday, I'm going to be helping out at the Swap-O-Rama-Rama in Venice.

I'll be at a table demonstrating how to embellish your boring clothes with fun and funky appliques. I usually cut my appliques freehand, but I made these stencils tonight so people could trace them if they wanted:

That, or they could make their own and leave them for others to use. We'll be using fabric scraps, Heat 'n Bond Lite, an iron, scissors, a sewing machine, and a needle and thread for hand-sewing. If people aren't sure how to sew things to other things, I'll help them, or if they do know how, I'll just provide the materials and let them go to town. I just found out Jenny Ryan will be there with me, so together we'll help people applique their asses off. If you live close, stop by!

I've been cleaning out my closets in preparation and came up with TWO garbage bags full.

Imagine if I just sent that to the landfill instead. I love the concept of the Swap-O-Rama-Rama. My friends and I used to do this in college, only on a smaller scale. Usually it was 5-10 of us meeting at someone's house, each person bringing a bag of clothes and a drink or food to share. When everyone was there, we'd dump all our bags in the middle of the room and dive in. Then, of course, we'd end up doing an impromptu fashion show. Good times. We didn't have sewing stations on the sidelines though.

I hear the other designers are offering plushie-making, screenprinting, and altering and tailoring at their stations. Sweet! Just think, all these neglected, unloved, under-appreciated clothes are getting packed into bags right now ready to be tossed into the Swap-O-Rama-Rama. Soon, they'll be transformed into stylin' new creations, ready to hit the streets of L.A. in all their handmade glory. I promise there will be pictures.

Teach your children well

It never fails, after about a year of being away from teaching I start thinking about going back. I don't know what it is. When I was in Shepherdstown I saw a few of my former students and started thinking about the school I started there. In 2004 a few moms in Shepherdstown asked me start a school for their homeschooled kids. We met M-W-F from 9-3. Our classroom was a converted dining room and I had 7 kids ranging in grades K-8. Looking back, I don't know how I did it but somehow it worked.



This was our classroom. The kids were pretending they were always this sweet and well-behaved. Ha! they were usually silly and rambunctious. But I loved them anyway and somehow managed to teach things like nouns and verbs and U.S. history and art and growing beans and raising butterflies.


It was a fun time. I sometimes wonder what it would have grown into if we were still living there. I'm happy to hear that the kids are all growing into fine respectable citizens and that they remember their time with me fondly.

Speaking of out-of-the-box endeavors originating in Shepherdstown, my friend Karen (mom of 3 girls, two of whom were my students) sent me a link to her new website gogreengals.com. Check it out, it's an awesome resource for sustainable living. It links to sites where you can eat, dress, drive, decorate, work, party, have pets, and raise kids in ways that help, instead of hurt the environment. Right on!

Weekend Wrapup

Whew! It's been one hectic weekend. On Friday, I took Erik's parents on the downtown Hollywood tour (Erik was at work and Sage was in kindergarten). They had just returned from their trip to China so I thought I'd continue the theme and take them to Grauman's Chinese Theater, then to the Highland complex for on obligatory picture with the Hollywood sign (it's up there, try to find it):
Then I took them to our favorite restaurant The Pig and Whistle, and later to the airport so they could fly back home.

Saturday I was a vendor at the FSC Harvest Market (at the school where I used to teach) in Van Nuys. It was so nice to see my old students.



It was a pretty good day too but now I'm panicking because I depleted my stock and the Handmade for the Holidays show is next week. Eek! I must now get in sweatshop mode and crank out the kokoleos like crazy for the next few days.

Today I volunteered at Felt Club - handing out swag bags and selling tickets at the opening of the event. Crazy! Here's the line:

We handed out 250 swag bags in under 5 minutes! At noon, I taught a class on how to recycle holiday cards into ornaments. I was a bit afraid no one would show up but the class filled up quickly and I even had to turn some people away. Sorry! My "students" did a great job though. Check it out:






It was nice seeing another side of Felt Club for once. I was there three hours before I even made it over to the vendor area, which was awesome of course. I did some Christmas shopping and with the exception of a few little things, managed to resist buying myself a bunch of stuff. On the way back to my car, I saw this:
which I thought was pretty.

I felt a little guilty leaving Erik with the kids for so long this weekend, but they all survived. I have a show every weekend for the next three weekends, so they'll have to get used to it. Sorry family, but mama's gotta make some money! Two down, three to go.

School's Out!

At least for the kids. We still have one more week of teacher meetings before I'm free. Friday was a crazy day full of goodbyes and gifts and even a few tears. I'm going to miss those kids. I would have shared more of my school-life on this blog but I didn't feel right talking about work or posting pictures of the kids without their permission. I will post this though:


It was done by Lillye (top row, 4th from the left) whose creativity I've talked about before on this blog. I'm the sassy stylin' one on the top row, 5th from the right (it was drawn before my big belly emerged). Thanks for letting me post this Lillye! You captured our class perfectly. Stay gold.