Cucumbersome » random

Rescued Cashmere

britt — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:15:14 +0000

A few weeks ago I came across a post on the Sculptress Studio blog (discovered through her inspiring Flickr feed) about attending a sheep shearing at a 1840’s festival. Making clothing at that time (which isn’t long ago, really) was a three-year process. Three years. What she wrote here really struck me:
“Clothes had value far beyond what they do today. How many shirts and socks have I thrown away because of a small hole worn in the fabric? How easily would I have abandoned it if I spent three years making it? How did waste apply in the three year cycle? I imagine by the time cloth reached the trash pit it had gone from adult clothing, to children’s clothing, to quilts, to patches, to rags, to wicks, to nothing but a few thread bits.”
Around the same time, I came across baby vests made from rescued cashmere, like the one pictured above, made by eecee bb. An excellent example of good quality adult clothing being saved from the trash and turned into something useful (and adorable). I really want to try to be more aware of the impact of my purchases, and re-use as much as possible.
Have any good upcycling tips?

Ginger Ale-ment

britt — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:11:41 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts here. I’ve been feeling kind of awful - washing down gravol with ginger ale, that sort of thing. (And no, I’m not pregant.) But I have learned something very important that I will share with you. Are you ready for this?
There are different kinds of ginger ale.
Maybe this isn’t so shocking to you, but I had no idea.
Admittedly, my knowledge of soft drinks and sparkling beverages in general is limited to the tonic water I drink with gin and lime. I have found Canada Dry and Schweppes ginger ales to be big doses of sugar with very little effect on my nausea. A few days ago, I tried to make my own ginger ale by boiling down some fresh ginger and water sweetened with agave nectar and adding it to sparkling water. It didn’t really work. In researching how to quickly make a ginger ale-like drink, I came across an a “recipe” that called for mixing cola with sprite (Ta-da! It’s the color of ginger ale!). Not really what I had in mind.
In any case, I do recommend these four ginger ales that are significantly more gingery and less sugary:

Santa Cruz Organic Ginger Ale, here. Although these are all good, this one is my favorite. It is pleasantly spicey and incredibly soothing.
Bottle Green Lemongrass & Ginger Sparkling Pressé , here
Blue Sky Jamaican Ginger Ale, here
Boylan Bottleworks Ginger Ale, here

Any of the above make an ideal gift for an ill loved one. I would know, as Ryan has been buying me samplings of each. So sweet!
For those of you with little or no interest in ginger ales (if that’s even possible!), I will have some more interesting, less nausea-related posts up over the next few days.

Hamster Cinema

britt — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:36:33 +0000

Product + Cute Animals = I’M SOLD!

Home Is Where The Art Is

britt — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:15:12 +0000

Something I regretted in our last place was not hanging more art and pictures. Nailing something non-essential into the wall is like committing to the place.
I saw this photo on apartment therapy:

The print above the sofa made me so happy, in a way that only Caribou’s “The Milk of Human Kindness” album cover had previously.
So I found out that the print was by Jessica Ritter, called Beneath the Sea, and for sale on etsy. I bought the green version:

Here are some other prints that I was/am considering.

“Buns and Combs” by nosideup

“Coexistence” by Shira Sela

“The Bear (Ursa Major)” by Lilly Piri

“Little Sparrows” by Yumi Yumi

“Geo Shape Pile” by Samantha Hahn

“Tea Revives You” (Gold) by Lucas & Hayley

And here’s a couple of free prints that you can download from Readymade magazine (these are from a while back, but they’re great).

“Simplicity” by Nick Dewar. Click here to download.

“Let Them Grow” by Mike Perry. Click here to download.

Things I Want to Make (But There’s a Good Chance I Won’t)

britt — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:35:22 +0000

1. Some variation of this embroidered “messy tablecloth” by AZEdesign
Why I love it: it’s so perfectly embroidered to look like a complete mess
Why I won’t be making it: no patience for embroidery, at all
Why you should make it: so you can have me over for a dinner party

2. A smaller sized version of this cascade chandelier made out of recycled bottles by Michelle Brand
Why I love it: because at first it just looks like a classy, shimmering chandelier but also because it makes you look at plastic bottles in a whole new way
Why I won’t be making it: it looks best as it is, in its grandiose form, and I can’t seem to find a ballroom in our house in which to hang it
Why you should make it: because you have a ballroom

3. A record player made entirely out of paper, like Simon Elvins’
Why I love it: it seems like if you mastered the making of it, you could just whip one up on a camping trip and (assuming you’ve brought your favorite records) voila! you’ve got yourself a dance party in the woods! (I’m all about the parties today)
Why I won’t be making it: because I can’t even fathom how it works
Why you should make it: because you are much smarter than me

4. These super cheap top-down blinds using the important gizmo-y parts of inexpensive plastic blinds and those paper temporary blinds
Why I love it: you get sunlight, sans neighbors staring into your house
Why I won’t be making it: actually, I just might make these. We need something better, especially in our living room, and have you seen how much wood blinds cost?
Why you should make it: so we can both brag about our awesome blinds

5. This adorable happy star ipod cozy
Why I love it: um, because it’s adorable
Why I won’t be making it: our 80G ipod was stolen! (this destroyed my trust of my fellow Nelsonites)
Why you should make it: because you have an ipod (*wistfully glances at your ipod*)

6. A paper cut-out as awesome as this one at skinny laminx
Why I love it: it’s so intricate and delicate and it would be prove to be evidence of my patience and determination
Why I won’t be making it: because I already tried and got frustrated and quit
Why you should make it: because it’s pretty

7. My very own hoodie based on this tutorial
Why I love it: because it doesn’t use an actual pattern and looks pretty good (with different fabric choices)
Why I ~~won’t~~ might be making it: because my dearest brown hoodie leapt out of my bag and twizzled its way out of the trunk of our car while we were on our honeymoon and now I am without a comfy, go-to hoodie
Why you should make it: it’s cheaper than buying one. oh, and bragging rights (”nice hoodie you have there” “oh, this? it’s nothing, really. I just made it myself. in my spare time. with some scraps of fabric I found laying around.”)

8. An art piece made out of a damaged book like these book autopsies by Brian Dettmer
Why I love it: c’mon! They’re fantastic! And they give new life to old books and get rid of all those pesky words.
Why I won’t be doing it: it looks like it would make a mess. And it would probably be a lot harder than I imagine.
Why you should do it: because you just saved a whole set of encyclopedias from the trash but some of them are water-stained and they’re just sitting in a corner of your living room now

There you have it. Some of these things I have had vague hopes of creating for a long time now. But here I am, confessing that I most likely won’t make them and giving you compelling reasons to do them for me.