year of the dragon

If you've noticed that I've been absent even more than usual you've probably guessed that my schedule has been a little busy. We've been working on developing a new brand that we'll be launching later this spring, and it's kept me even more occupied than anticipated. I had good blogging intentions, and I've been carrying the camera along with me but somehow never using it. I hauled it all the way to Palm Springs a couple of weeks ago and took only three quick photos. Which makes it even more ironic that when I finally had a chance to photograph something (and time to stand still, no less) I had only the ipod with me. But it was Chinese New Year, and S and her friend were thrilled by the popping firecrackers and the confetti and the many, many dragons. I thought I'd share it with you.

We admired the beautiful women on decorated floats:



I liked the home-made dragons:


and the more elaborate dragons:


the drum carts:


the delegations meeting mid-parade:









and especially the little dragons-in-training:



So happy year of the dragon! I missed wishing you a happy 2012, so let's throw that in as well, shall we? I'm hoping to manage a little blog re-design and a lot more blogging very soon. And of course I'll let you know when our new project is up and ready for its reveal, too.

sweet, again

S and I have a little tradition when we play our favorite matching game. Whenever one of us turns over the bear on a bicycle card, we both do a little freak-out and holler "Bear on a Bicycle!" And of course whoever finds the match does a mini dance. I've got no idea why we do this. Maybe just because we love the illustration so much.

So when Heather Ross told me that Melissa Sweet, the illustrator of our beloved game, would be attending Heather's Weekend Sewing retreat last weekend, I did a larger version of my mini freak-out. I love Melissa's work, and she would be there in person, sewing with us! (And not only was she sewing with us, she was even making up my Lisette Passport Jacket.)

So that was fun. But what we even more fun was learning that Melissa has just published a new children's book, Balloons Over Broadway, which is a story about the man who made the very first balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

As it happens, we were having dinner just around the corner from Macy's one night during the workshop, so a few of us dropped in afterwards to see if we could find the poster and the Macy's shopping bags (!) featuring Melissa's illustrations.

It wasn't an entirely fruitful search. No sign of the shopping bags, but we located a poster before returning to the sewing lab for the evening. I'll go back in a week or so to see if I can find the shopping bags.

S was beyond thrilled to get a signed copy of the book, and she spent yesterday afternoon and evening (parent-teacher conferences--half day of school) happily working away on the fantastic activity pages that Melissa and her publisher assembled. They're amazing! S spent loads of time designing her own Thanksgiving Day balloon, assembling a balloon hat (it turns out she moves quite well like a balloon when she's wearing her hat, thank you very much), and finding the best parade route through the maze. She was busy taping together the finger puppets while I assembled the adorable finger puppet storage box (I'll be making another one for myself, I love it so much). The activities are brilliant and would be a wonderful way to keep excited kids busy while they're awaiting Thanksgiving dinner.

By the way, Melissa will be on The Martha Stewart Show later this week demonstrating what Heather says is "the best project" she's seen for kids in a long time. Guess what we'll be doing on Thanksgiving Day before dinner?

Sweet.

(All these images are from Melissa's website. She's got a great blog, too!)

orange

Last weekend S picked out a new hat on our way to Christie's for the contemporary art auction preview. As soon as we arrived at the galleries we noticed that she coordinated with the Mark Rothko--so well, in fact, that she had to stand to one side so we could see the top of her head!

Then we noticed orange everywhere we looked.

She even coordinated with the noses of the dogs on stilts.

And the creepy tomato-head art. (Can you tell I'm not a fan of Paul McCarthy?)

No orange on this one, but it's one of my favorite pieces by Maurizio Catellan. The tiny elevators actually seem to work, much to the amusement of the two little girls in attendance.

Lowell

A couple of weeks ago we took advantage of some school vacation days and rented a car for a little trip to Massachusetts to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time: we visited the old textile mill town of Lowell. Have you heard of it?

Lowell was the first planned industrial town in the U.S. Its planners found a perfect location for a mill town (the river drops 13 feet, and a series of old logging canals lent themselves perfectly to powering the mills), traveled to England to learn the secrets of the mills there, and then returned to the U.S. and proceeded to build a mill city of their own.

Lowell is important to the history of our country on many levels: from the perspective of the industrial revolution, our economic development (and a demonstration of economic cycles) as a country, and in relation to the history of the cotton trade. Among others.

Now it's a National Park. And a great one.

The canals and the restored architecture are incredibly scenic.

The Boott Cotton Mill has been restored and turned into an amazing museum.

When you first enter you punch in at the time clock--just like the workers did:



The ground floor houses the looms themselves, and the noise on the floor when just a few of the looms are in operation would be deafening if it weren't for the earplugs provided. I can't even imagine what it would have been like for the workers (who worked without earplugs and lost their hearing, no doubt).

Upstairs you'll find a wonderful exhibit that demonstrates all the parts of a vertical mill (a vertical mill does everything from making the yarns from the raw cotton to finishing the fabric). I loved this exhibit, and the ranger on duty was a wealth of information and enthusiasm (which was great because I was nearly bouncing up and down, I was so excited about this. Fellow textile geeks unite!). S loved working a table loom (my apologies to the museum--we completely filled the warp and you'll need to prepare another loom for the rest of the people who come to visit), and I flipped out over the giant carding machine and all the other fantastic equipment and exhibits.

vertical mill model:


giant carding machine:

examples of the textiles produced at the mill over the years:


Right next door to the mill you can also explore one of the boarding houses to experience life as a mill girl. S was rather intrigued by this part since her beloved American Girl doll, Samantha, had a friend who worked in a textile mill.

When the mills first opened, the owners were trying to create a Utopian work environment, and they hired local farm girls to work in the mills. The girls were very well cared for and were given many opportunities for self-improvement, but the mills were so successful that competition surged. This, of course, put pressure on the mills to drop prices and pay and to increase the number of hours that the girls were required to work. Eventually the girls went on strike because the working conditions were very bad. Immigrants were later hired to replace the mill girls, and the working conditions soon resembled the conditions in England that the planners had hoped to avoid when they opened the mills. See? It's fascinating stuff--or it will be if you visit, at least.

We took a trolley tour of the canals, which included tons of fascinating information about the history of the town, the development of the canals, and lots of beautiful views:

I really want to go back again, I loved this town and the museum so much. I'd also like the visit the Slater Mill Museum someday, too.

We took a little side trip to Boston on Saturday and visited some friends... (does anyone in this photo look familiar?)


as well as some feathered friends. Do you recognize this scene?


here's a hint:

Yup. Make Way For Ducklings, complete with ducklings.

S wanted a self-portrait of herself with the mama. This pose garnered a lot of chuckles from other visitors:

It's a funny photo from the perspective of the iPod, too.