gah i'm finally done with this quarter, things have been wild but i'm finished! the plants for my garden are growing rapidly already i hope they make it until saturday so i can transplant them when i move! so much packing to do, but i'm going to have a lot of free time to catch up on my shirt making and projects. so here's something i started working on. it's a watercolor series of lovely ladies from each decade, dressed in the clothing from that decade. this is 1990. she's faceless. oops. but that will be worked out soon enough.

 i want her outfit.

    oil is still flowing strong down at the gulf. they are calculating that the flow won't be stopped until august. it was an accident produced by a corporation probably cutting corners and probably not giving a damn about anything else but the benjamins. it was bound to happen in some form or another.  i like to explain it as "the price we have to pay for industrialization and oil dependency".  tragedies like this happen, and they always will as long as we are using resources capable of polluting.  it seems as though everyone is hung up on drilling bp into the ground with the boycotts, protests and jokes, well you can run your mouth about it, or you can do something about it. i believe that we need to support bp in their clean up efforts as well as all other organizations and agencies involved. it's not going to get cleaned up on accusations and complaints, it happened, so now we need to come together and wait to play the blame game until millions of gallons of oil stop shooting into the ocean.  bp will get what they've probably had coming for awhile after the oil has stopped, but the matter at hand is clean-up, not politics, not rage. it's not rocket science that this is a serious problem, and i think i'm safe to say that every employee, down to the cashiers at bp stations, know it. there's nothing wrong with boycotts or protests but we need to support them now, and never let them live it down later.  this is a lesson on sustainability. learn from it and live it because we're stuck with this now, so what better time to start making change in our lifestyles? 

keep athens funky

      the sun is setting on a particularly productive day here in athens, ohio. i was out and about on a walk, taking pictures with my old roommate, when i noticed how our small town is teeming with life on days like these.  hibernation is the trend during winter quarter, a trend i take part in.  this town is dead in the winter, it's quiet in the winter, it's cold here in the winter, bitterly cold, even for me. but today is the beginning of spring, i can hear the people living in the apartment below me out on their balcony drunkenly serenading blues traveler, spring has sprung.
     i've seen a lot of cars with a bumper or window sticker that reads, "keep athens funky". as if athens will ever be defunkified.  this phrase has been on my mind lately.  why would athens be classified as funky? i thought long and hard, but i already knew the answer; the people.
      we all tend to forget what a diverse collection of people this place we call home has.  there is little that divides us here. i've made many close friends that are my polar opposite, nothing really separates anyone.  you could say that this phenomena is due to the entire student body's undying loyalty and love of beer, but it has to be deeper than that. doesn't alcohol drive people apart? i don't really know, but i know that athens is a town all it's own, it's funky, it's artistic, it's athletic, it's preppy, it's musical.  it's a plethora of unique, and it's widely accepted. some could say that establishments like casa (pretentious/hippyish? layed back bar/restaurant) creates the funk, but places like the crystal (over crowded frat bar/ underage drunk magnet) take away from it.  but i'm realizing now that therein, this contradictory condition, lies the funk. 

    here are some fotos from my walk.

an old truck i liked.

the simplest tombstone.

gimme some more o' dat f-stop.

...and now for the "i don't care i just want it!" items of the week.

   the perfect vintage spring dress!

   versatile skirt we all need in our closets, tuck a
   sweater or loose shirt in for a super soft
   end-of-winter look.

    

        cute fawn ring, just the thing for spring!

   

        comfy sandals to give those boot 

        imprisoned, winter feet some sun!

      

          belt any loose fitting dress or long

          shirt for an easy outfit!

    fashion week 2010 fall collections had a lot in common, a lot of black, a lot, big shoulders, elbow length gloves, black tights, and 1,000 different versions of the little black dress, none of which i am too fond of, except the little black dress. yes, these are fall collections, there will be black, but that's not what I want to see right now, i want color and i didn't particularly fall in love with any of them so i'm using the spring collections for this write up.
    starting with donna karan, i didn't like the fall collection.  it wasn't the donna karan i know and love. nothing shocked me, it was boring. I am, however, head over heels for her spring collection which consists of pastels, snug skirt suits and flattering, yet flowing dresses.  she did what she knows best, and that's making fresh clothing that fits well.

          next on the list, calvin klein's spring collection. inevitably classic, never questioned, but the typical calvin klein was not evident in this collection, they gave us something fresh. i couldn't get over their version of the maxi dress, by far my favorite piece. fluid, elegant, flattering, the couture spin on the floor length sun dress.

     bcbg put on a fabulous show. i usually don't like the red carpet dresses, i like to see everyday wear with a designer's wild couture twist.  but bcbg's dresses blew me away. they were truly red carpet worthy, but not in the tacky sense, they were classic, but modern.

    derek lam isn't a designer i usually take note of, or has ever been on my radar. i will be looking at more of his collections from now on. he definitely has a knack for the typical short dress and variations of. his patterns and shapes interested me and his collection wasn't a sea of white and creams for spring.  it was funky and innovative, casual chic.  pretty shapeless, and pretty short, but derek lam makes shapeless and short look so good.

     last on my list of the spring cling collections, isn't spring at all, it's victoria beckham's fall collection, the only fall collection i could bare to post.  at the height of the spice girl's fame, someone could have informed me that posh spice would later be known for her impeccable taste and faultless designs, i would have laughed long and hard. her spring collection is fabulous.  it is simple, tight, chic, sexy, and modest all at the same time.  her color choice is dead on and something i've been waiting for.

    on to menswear.  i really didn't like a lot of the fall pieces in menswear either.  they had metallic and gray suits that were hideous shades.  i don't think that a suit option should ever be the color gray, or shiny. although I did like the a lot of the coats they sent down the runway, a lot of really cleanly designed coats in mostly black, some gray, and some color.
calvin klein had a few nice looks, casual and sharp, there were a lot of jackets that were dressed down with a sweat shirt or a cotton piece.

     i really liked the coats by commonwealth utilities, very classic style but with an artsy flare. very "scene" combinations, if you will.  there was a lot of pant rolling or cropping, which was interesting, it adds a sense of boyish adventure, the huckleberry fin appeal to an already  hard, edgy design.

     the last menswear collection i liked, was general idea.  they had a very gothic tone to their pieces which i didn't like, but again with the coats, i couldn't help but like the sharp over coat.