Jewels of Denial

Today Alex is a bit under the weather. But lucky you...I found this great post of hers from a couple years ago that deserved another look. Enjoy!

I was an artistic kid. Right on through college, my focus was on art, in some form. Sometimes it was drawing (I'm pretty mediocre), sometimes pottery (also mediocre), some art history, and eventually interior design.

Then I got married, had a baby and, suddenly, didn't have time to sit around a contemplate the mysteries of  cerulean blue or Basquiat. In 18 months, all my dreams of being a boho artist in NYC were dashed.

Interestingly though, creativity can't be killed. It will bubble to the surface somehow, someway. For me, it came out in cooking. I had to cook every day and I discovered that I could get pretty creative with recipes. As a result of years of playing around in the kitchen, I'm a confident and decent cook who will, often, take risks with good results.

Once my son was in high school and fed himself most of the time (Easy Mac and potato chips, mostly), I found myself in need of a new creative outlet. In my neighborhood, there was a bead shop that had the most enticing front window filled with a gorgeous array of semi-precious stones and stunning finished jewelry. After a number of weeks of window gazing, I finally screwed up the courage to go inside. I wandered around, entranced by the colors and shapes, and was pleased to find that a strand of semi-precious stones isn't all that expensive. I also discovered that (like most craft shops) the staff was completely willing to help me learn whatever I wanted to learn. I had found my new muse.

Cassandra and I have spoken before about the siren song of craft supplies. When one starts a new craft, it's very easy to become enthralled by it and want to buy all the gorgeous bits that go with the new hobby. With beaded jewelry-making, very few tools are actually needed but it's not unusual to fall into the abyss of beads. As I mentioned, even semi-precious stones (including pearls) are pretty inexpensive when viewed individually. It isn't until you have a rubbermaid container full of them and realize that it's a few hundred dollars worth that the depth of the obsession comes to light. Like with yarn, there comes a point where I had to put a moratorium on bead buying. The rule (for all my crafts) is, "Supplies can only be bought with a specific project planned."

Another issue was that, while I enjoyed the action of making jewelry, I'm not an active wear-er of jewelry. I created hundreds of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more - sometimes even specifically FOR myself - but rarely, if ever, wore them. I'm not a big jewelry fan. I like it on other people and I like to wear things that belonged to my grandmother or mother but, in general, I wear the same silver hoop earrings and single silver ring every day. So, for the most part, I just gave it all away as gifts. Eventually, I stopped doing this craft because I figured people were sick of getting my jewelry for every gift-giving opportunity.

A rosary made by me

So, I'm left with a big box of beads, good tools, and an occasional desire to break it all out and start again. I won't get rid of my supplies because the day will come when someone wants a necklace for a wedding or a specific pair of earrings and I'll be able to make these items without having to re-invest in the hobby. Plus, every once in a while, I love just looking at the beautiful beads and imagining what they could become.

- Alex

Friday Finds: Another Time Suck

The one thing we're suckers for, here at Mighty Distractible, is gorgeous design. It doesn't matter what it is - a toilet paper holder or a house or a billboard - if it's designed well, we celebrate it.

Now you can celebrate design, and get lost in a deep, deep well of content, at designboom.com.

One of my favorite things about this site is their tagline: "since 1999 home of design culture, leading independent publication for design, architecture, art, photography and graphics"

I found the site through Pinterest (of course) when I saw this:

'sand bowl' by leetal rivlin

My first impression of the site was that it was overwhelmingly advertising heavy and that there's WAY too much copy crammed into the home page. Funny that a site dedicated to art and design would have such a crappy design but...

Once I got into it, I fell in love with the inspiration. A lot of the content is submitted through their DIY Submissions feature. If you type DIY into their search engine, you'll get TONS of cool ideas for projects.

So...you can curse me and thank me later. ;)

- Alex (the pusher)

Friday Finds: Gorgeous Things

This week on Friday Finds, I bring you my worst-kept secret - FAB.com, the site where I've spent more of my "disposable" income than is healthy.

The site is a weird mash-up of Living Social/Groupon, Amazon, and Etsy. The way it works is this - a company or artist or designer (someone with a beautifully designed product) offers a limited range of products at a discount for a limited time. Each day, you can go to FAB to see the featured products for the day (in various product categories) as well as get a "last look" at items that are about to age out. Since there are only a limited number of each item, sometimes the coolest things sell out before the sale is finished. That's a huge bummer - but I fix it by going out to the designer/artist/company's website to buy the product directly - and at full price.

I think I'm their favorite customer.

The key to FAB is that everything is gorgeous. Whether you're buying a spatula or a piece of furniture or (I swear to god) a vibrator, the DESIGN of the object has to be exceptional. That's their brand and their mission - to bring beautiful design at discount prices to the masses. I tend to buy in the $50 or under category but you can, easily, spend thousands of dollars on a handmade sofa or a gorgeous piece of art. FAB has become my "spontaneous gift" source since, nearly every day, I find amazing things that my friends and family would love - so I buy it and gift it for no reason. I love doing that.

So... here are a few of the items I've purchased from FAB recently.

We should all shop in style

A necklace for me

I'm wearing this bracelet today

A gift for my son's cat (my son is a DJ)

A gift for my son because, really, these are totally cool.

A gift for my son's girlfriend, the artist.

You can thank me (and curse me) later.  Enjoy!

- Alex

Jewels of Denial

I was an artistic kid. Right on through college, my focus was on art, in some form. Sometimes it was drawing (I'm pretty mediocre), sometimes pottery (also mediocre), some art history, and eventually interior design.

Then I got married, had a baby and, suddenly, didn't have time to sit around a contemplate the mysteries of  cerulean blue or Basquiat. In 18 months, all my dreams of being a boho artist in NYC were dashed.

Interestingly though, creativity can't be killed. It will bubble to the surface somehow, someway. For me, it came out in cooking. I had to cook every day and I discovered that I could get pretty creative with recipes. As a result of years of playing around in the kitchen, I'm a confident and decent cook who will, often, take risks with good results.

Once my son was in high school and fed himself most of the time (Easy Mac and potato chips, mostly), I found myself in need of a new creative outlet. In my neighborhood, there was a bead shop that had the most enticing front window filled with a gorgeous array of semi-precious stones and stunning finished jewelry. After a number of weeks of window gazing, I finally screwed up the courage to go inside. I wandered around, entranced by the colors and shapes, and was pleased to find that a strand of semi-precious stones isn't all that expensive. I also discovered that (like most craft shops) the staff was completely willing to help me learn whatever I wanted to learn. I had found my new muse.

Cassandra and I have spoken before about the siren song of craft supplies. When one starts a new craft, it's very easy to become enthralled by it and want to buy all the gorgeous bits that go with the new hobby. With beaded jewelry-making, very few tools are actually needed but it's not unusual to fall into the abyss of beads. As I mentioned, even semi-precious stones (including pearls) are pretty inexpensive when viewed individually. It isn't until you have a rubbermaid container full of them and realize that it's a few hundred dollars worth that the depth of the obsession comes to light. Like with yarn, there comes a point where I had to put a moratorium on bead buying. The rule (for all my crafts) is, "Supplies can only be bought with a specific project planned."

Another issue was that, while I enjoyed the action of making jewelry, I'm not an active wear-er of jewelry. I created hundreds of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more - sometimes even specifically FOR myself - but rarely, if ever, wore them. I'm not a big jewelry fan. I like it on other people and I like to wear things that belonged to my grandmother or mother but, in general, I wear the same silver hoop earrings and single silver ring every day. So, for the most part, I just gave it all away as gifts. Eventually, I stopped doing this craft because I figured people were sick of getting my jewelry for every gift-giving opportunity.

A rosary made by me

So, I'm left with a big box of beads, good tools, and an occasional desire to break it all out and start again. I won't get rid of my supplies because the day will come when someone wants a necklace for a wedding or a specific pair of earrings and I'll be able to make these items without having to re-invest in the hobby. Plus, every once in a while, I love just looking at the beautiful beads and imagining what they could become.

- Alex

"Paging Dr. Freud..."

So.... Cassandra and I saw this the other day:

We both laughed. Then I said something like, "That's a blog post waiting to happen!" - at which point we turned the car around and took photos.

We're always looking for material.

But what, exactly, can I say about this? It is, at once, creative and fun as well as silly and non-conformist. My inner child loves it but my outer grown-up thinks it's ridiculous. I'm also not-so-secretly jealous of this person's ability to freely express their "art" without fear of judgment. You don't drive around in a rubber ducky car doing errands unless you have a pretty healthy sense of self - or an extreme desire to be the center of attention.

So, who needs the therapy here? Me, with my repressed desire to express my creativity or the duck-car owner with their "obsession."  I'm pretty sure that the answer is "me."

Regardless, the duck car definitely makes for interesting conversation fodder like "at what point does an interest or hobby become an obsession?"

I believe that, while some creatives are truly obsessed, most are just super-comfortable with their choices. Obsession by definition requires a certain amount of pain - either in the uncontrollable desires that create the obsession or in the aftermath of the obsession (drained bank account, an inability to take care of oneself, alienation of others, etc.) I'm guessing that duck-car owner is probably just fine with the choice to create this particular piece of art. I doubt that he or she is obsessively scouring every possible outlet for new and different ducks. I can't imagine that he or she has spent too much money on the creation of the duck car. And, I can pretty much guarantee, that there's little to no pain being generated by flaunting the duck car in public. Except for maybe the embarrassment that duck-car owner's mom probably feels. As a matter of fact, I imagine that duck car brings a lot of joy wherever it goes. 

Cassandra and I certainly enjoyed it. 

So...let your freak flag fly. Wear purple every day. Collect cow figurines until your house is littered with them. Knit yourself a Dr Who scarf (only 12 ft long!) In the end, our obsessions aren't obsessions as long as they're bringing us, or those around us, happiness. Just remember to turn it off if it starts getting in the way of your real life or someone might sic Dr Freud on you.

- Alex