A little blue...

Feeling a bit blue (just a tad don't worry) can sometimes be so inspirational, no?

Beautifully shaped little succulent, vaguely reminiscent of an underwater-anemone...

Pretty sewing-tin, gift from Marg (sigh I miss you)

Tiny sunhat in sweet Japanese print with delicate waterblue and seaweed colors

I'm making sunhats for babies and toddlers again, which I'll sell at the upcoming Craftwerk-fair. As NZ's sun is starting to blaze into the summer our littlest people need protection. The hats are -my trade-mark I guess- fully reversible : feature-fabric on one side, soft denim (in sand, seaweed or nightblue) on the other. I try to make the hats in three sizes : tiny (for a newborn up to 6 months), baby (from six months to 1 year old) and toddy (between 1 and 2), but this is really only indicative because little ones have such different and unpredictable heads! Some (like my daughter Lieveke) have really small heads and fit a 'baby'-hat for a long time (Lieveke is now 20 months). Some kids (like Lieveke's best friend Rufus, aged 2) will need a large toddy size straight away even if they are only 8 months or so...

If you can't make it to the fair but are interested in such a sunhat for your tiny-baby-toddy, just give me a little Email, and I'll gladly make you one.

More sunhats, why else have you a cactus.

I've been neglecting our Etsy-store a bit, certainly not out of want, but just because I've had so many special orders from people here in Auckland and I've been sewing almost every night to finish the orders in time for every-one.

So, I will do a loooooooong awaited Etsy-update on next Monday 3/12/07, with the last of the tree-pinnies (such gorgeous fabric!), new quilted toddler bibs and I hope NEW toddler-dresses in fabulous new prints.

Now something else : Gabriel had some of his art published in the latest Landfall, New Zealand's renowned literary magazine. The photo-reportage -he made it in situ in Korea- depicts desolate city-scapes and streetwise lone objet-trouve's, evoking an almost heart-breaking brittle beauty... Somehow the solemn emptiness (or fulness) of these pictures suggests 'emo-scelettons' or 'soul-scaffolds'. Well, that's what I see anyway...

Gabriel has also been reworking one of his films. Aucklantis is a video-piece, shot witha hand held camera and with Gabe as sole actor-performer, musing 'Homericly' through his habitat Auckland and 'high-lighting' or 'up-lifting' the every day into the sublime... Aiiii that sounds so pompous but truly it is quite a simple and gripping film and VERY funny. We had a screening of it yesterday and the reactions were so warm! I made DVD-cases to sell the film in, together with a booklet with transcripts of his monologues (poems if you like) and they sold out!

Also

-do you know 'Hable con Ella'? Pedro Almodovar's exquisite film? It must be one of my favorites. the way Almodovar rhymes the harshness of reality in loss and self-destruction (thanathos) with that other essence of life : passion (eros) and this through humor paired with themes like travesty and art - oh tragicomedy in the classical sense, it renders me quiet and thankful of... Of everything! I've the CD with the film-score playing right now. Here, please listen to Gaetano Veloso's sweet 'Paloma'.

-Domino sugar plant - @ 2 or 3 things I know

-And the above photo comes from a true jewel to add to our 'inspiration'-trove of blogs : '2 or 3 things I know' !!! I really admire everything this woman writes so well about (hmm blush. But really, all of it, she's just done a clever post on Antonioni too!). So beautiful, such interesting and erudite links and such sense of balance in the composition of image and text. Thank you, Lee!
-And just for smiles, this thing is plonked on top of the bombastic building that houses Palais the Tokyo at the back of place Trocadero in Paris : 'hotel Everland'. Great installation fun! I can just hear people thinking : 'but, is it real?' 'but, is that art?' 'but, how can we get there?' 'Can one make a reservation?'. Love it.

Till soon, for now X
-L