Eco-Pretty!

I was over at Whip-up today - I haven't be over there in AGES, and I forgot how much I love it.  Now I want to make these... Maybe I should make some for my sister for Christmas... I'm thinking they would be gorgeous painted as well.  The instructions can be found here - from esprit cabane...

I don't want a band-aid solution

I've been thinking about design and the environment a lot lately. I think it might be part of the MA ethos - think too much, and live inside your head. So I'm letting this thought out into the wide-wide world. I have been thinking about how much stuff is being done to make people in the western world 'aware' of climate change. But we need solutions, not just words. All the solutions may not be right - but its a step in a forward direction at least. I personally don't need more gadgets that tell me stuff about the world (like this toy airplane that tells me the air is polluted). Wouldn't it be better if we put more effort into making the air NOT polluted, instead of telling people its ? I know measurement is an important thing to deal with making people do something - but do you think that really changes people's awareness really changes their actions? I have doubts. I'm working on my own little solution - I don't know if its really necessary, but I'm thinking about it.

About Nothing in particular

I thought I would post about nothing in particular - as I have reader(s?) that I need to entertain. Hmmm... Let me think of all the things I've done this week and do a little recap. On Monday - I can't remember what I did, I was at college I remember that, oh yeah, now I remember - I had a terribly unsuccessful artwork making day. boo to that. Tuesday I had a successful artwork making day, and I even did a couple of digital prints. Wednesday I went to a boring meeting, where I heard a great deal of stuff about the college, but I remember only one thing that Louise said that really stuck with me - that there needs to be room for glorious failure within education. I love the idea of glorious failure! It sounds absolutely beautiful, and intriguing and not safe at all. In the afternoon I played with the heat press in the print room. On Thursday I went to some lectures - one sucked and the other one was great. The one that was great was about Social Enterprise - and it was so great to hear about all sorts of ideas that can be made commercially viable, but make the world a slightly better place. Today I did some work, and I went to the bank, and I had a design epiphany - which I can't give away yet, because that's no fun, and I wouldn't want someone else to do it before I had a chance to do it. I guess that's it, and I hope you enjoyed my mini ramble about stuff you probably didn't care about. Oh the photo is from my galavant to the Tate Modern on Sunday where I indulged in my very favourite London activity - getting tea at the Tate, and wondering what colour combination of mug and teapot I'm going to get. Its the true highlight of my life (I must live a boring life... either that or I'm odd - I'm going to go with odd).

A Musical Aside

For some reason, I have found two songs from TV commercials that I love. And I thought I would share... I need to buy some albums now, unfortunately they are only available on UK's iTunes site - so I'm going to have to buy CDs. I think I might be watching too much TV. I'm bored, lots to do but still really bored. Just thought I would throw that out there. Anyone else feelin' the same lately?

For the other one you will have to click on this link... I promise its worth it em! I need to find someone to come to their show on Nov 27th with me. Otherwise I'll go all by myself and dance terribly all by myself... wait, maybe its better to go all by myself, no one to witness the atrocities of my dancing :)

PS - the song up top is "Neopolitan Dreams" by Lisa Mitchell, and the other one is "I like you so much better when you're naked" by Ida Maria.

Pretty & Smart

This wallpaper from Camilla Diedrich is both absolutely gorgeous and has some sort of integration of smart - amazing - its not that terrible shade of glowing blue. Fantastic - I guess we are on our way. I found this via inhabitat...

Addicted to the Internet

So here I am in Berlin. And what do I do. Stay at my sweet hotel and hang out on the internet. Well not all day - just in the evening, after the conference I'm attending. I think I have an internet addiction, I couldn't get a connection all day and the only thing I could think about was checking my email. Its pretty sad if I do say so myself... I promise tomorrow I will be better - I will go out in the evening and see things I've never seen before. I will shed the heaviness of a day full of information and look and listen to the things I don't understand. My favorite thing so far about Berlin is the 'walk' and 'don't walk' men... To which I have learned is called the "Ampelmann" - and he has his own shop and everything!

What a difference a year makes

Just had a little moment of thinking about the past year, and its been one crazy ride. I seemingly know quite a bit more than I did before, but its still not enough! Another submersive year of textiles and science and design... Now all I have to do is stop reading and get started!

Pretty Pebbles

I saw these over on designsponge today - they are absolutely gorgeous!!! They are made can be found at Ashes & Milk, and their whole site is filled with the most lovely objects.

Michael Braungart Lecture and my scanner is broken...

How exciting its is to go to lectures by people you hold in high regard. I recently got the opportunity to go to a lecture put on by the Design Council and MADE at the RSA featuring Michael Braungart. I was so glad to have been able to go. I often use Cradle and Cradle principles as a starting point for my design process - thinking about how things could be better. I've scanned in my notes for any of you who might want to read them. I must say so many things stand out as being little gems of wisdom - I think my favourite is "[sustainable design is] not about being less bad but more good" - if that make any sense out of context. PS - my scanner is broken so the notes have had to be slightly touched up in photoshop. The pic above is a raw scan of the cover of my notebook - kind of interesting I must say.

Relevance

Sometimes I need to focus on this kind of information. I'm so happy to have seen this lovely little post-it drawing by Marc Johns. via Swiss Miss

“Let us stop talking falsely now, the hour is getting late.”
via this article from Treehugger, quote by Dylan.

New Discovery!

Thanks so much to my lovely friend Jen for the introduction to a new materials database - Inventables! They even have an affordable student subscription - of course to which I have signed up for! Oh the knowledge at my fingertips! I think they may need me on their team, I'll let them know certainly :P....

Happiness is...

After a long summer in London - I took a vacation. Two vacations actually - and I rediscovered what makes me very happy. The first one was a trip to Paris, where I spent 3 days wandering around and just discovering things. The second vacation was HOME. Every moment spent with my friends and all their little people made me so very happy. Highlights include witnessing Luca's FIRST STEPS, Matteo's adorable motioning meaning glasses, and cuddles while reading stories, Malcolm and Emery's giggles (baby giggles are absolutely delicious), Pheonix's amazing break dancing at the Studio 54 room at the Andy Warhol Exhibit, and cuddles with the sweet Earnest. And how could I forget the one thing that is so important, but its hardest to grasp, the absolute joy of being home, surrounded by familiar things and people who really like me. And the landscape and air. Oh my goodness, how nice it was to breathe actual oxygen - I'm not sure what I'm breathing in England, but it doesn't seem like air in comparison. The mountains were gorgeous, I loved every second - thank you to all of my lovely friends who made my time in Montreal so wonderful, give me 8 months and I'm going to try my very best to be back!!!

Design Makes me sad...

How could something I love so much make me so sad? I've been spending the week perusing all the wonderful things that make up London Design Week - and oh how I love it all - but at the end of the day - I can't have any of it, and its a bit disheartening. I want to have a gorgeous home with a tree or two outside, and be able to have my house featured as a 'sneak peek' on Design Sponge - but instead I live in a drafty house with a cranky housemate and an even crankier cat with crappy furniture, and my laundry drying in the only spare part of my room. Maybe in time, in the mean time I'll just keep looking. The piece above is by Katia Stewart, who presented at TENT in London.

Desperately seeking SPACE!

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with where I grew up - but I have a huge desire and yearning for space.  Lots of space, as far as the eye can see kind of space.  I wonder how this fits in with the urban me?  I've lived in large urban centers for the past 9 years, I grew up in suburban Calgary (bored out of my mind if I remember correctly), but now yearn for a bit of rurality.  The closest I got to the best of both worlds was Montreal - living in the urban part, but with easy access to the outdoors.  I understand the yearning for a McMansion - the idea that space is liberating, but my logic tells me they are a bad idea.  I know that sharing is good in theory (resources split between people etc...), but I don't really like sharing.  What's a girl to do?  If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them!

The Olympics

I love the Olympics, I spent today watching BBC coverage online.  I wish I could get Canadian coverage here, as its weird not to have the Cdn focus of the commentary.   But no matter what I love it!  I basically spent the day watching online (which is fabulous, as you aren't limited by what the television shows, you can flip between events).  I wish I could go to the Olympics, hopefully my sister and I will get tickets for the winter Olympics in Vancouver - it'll be just like when we were little, but I won't be bored at Cirque du Soleil, and we'll go to as many events as we can get our hands on tickets for, oh how I can't wait, but I'm very excited to watch these ones, if only I didn't have to go to work.  Image for the opening ceremonies above comes from boston.com.

Architectually Annoyed

I'm starting to get annoyed with architecture within the green blogosphere. It seems to be the major thing people talk about. I know its important, as a great deal of energy usage is dependant on buildings. As an avid reader of green stuff I'm just getting bored, annoyed, and hoping for something new. This image is from inhabitat here, and is a concept proposal by Juan Herreros Architects

Summer of Hardly any Posts

Sorry about the lack of posts. It seems as if I've been rather busy (thank goodness for that). Spending lots of time gallivanting around London and elsewhere a little too. I've been busy working as well - you know jobs and stuff. I'm working on Nobel Textiles - very cool project, my job is organization for the exhibition, its sure a lot of work, but its very exciting. Its going to be amazing, I can't wait to see all of the designer's final exhibitions! If you want to check out my photos from some of my recent trips - check A Brave Toned Timid Girl. The summer has become very social - which is awesome, and I'm enjoying discovering the city, and all the fun things going on. I'll have more interesting posts soon - I promise.

Stuff White People Like

Not sure if I've posted on this blog before. I don't know if I like it - basically what I've gotten is that I'm a walking cliche (graduate student in arts, study abroad, green advocate, I run...). And look what they've posted on now! Its something I have an issue with too, but why do we keep sustaining this practice. Luckily my internship pays - in the saddest way possible, working 3 days/we and it not even quite enough to pay my rent, nevermind my expenses - I have another job too (the other 2 days/wk, doing something else within the same place that pays much better). But I doubt I'll even breakeven for the summer. Isn't that sad? I certainly think it is. And what's even sadder, is that I'm one of the lucky ones, most of my peeps are doing unpaid things at the moment. I want to put a little seed out for the creative industries to stop using people - its a horrible practice, and entirely unethical.

Lovin' the Burda Style

Well you all know how much I like things that are all about sharing and making stuff. So Burda Style is definitely exactly my cup of tea! Basically its a bunch of patterns you can print-off from the website - most of them are free, a few cost a couple of dollars, but so much easier and cheaper than going to the fabric store and buying one. I made my first Burda Style pattern last week with the Eiffel Tower Fabric - its super cute, I'll devote a whole post to it when I fix the one thing that I'm annoyed with at the moment (there isn't anything wrong with the pattern, its just a colour thing that's all my fault). Some of the patterns are by Burda, and some of them are by individual users - all in all utterly fantastic! There is even a pattern for this Urban Hammock - very cool. And the pattern I have in the photo is this one...

China Now.

I went to the V&A on Monday to see the China Now exhibit. It was absolutely wonderful! The graphics were ASTOUNDING! The other portions were cool too - but the Graphics were definitely the highlight for me. The piece above is by Guang Yu (MEWE Design Alliance) and is called Youth and Beauty.

MIT OpenCourseWare

I've known about this for awhile now - but just sharing now (I'm sorry for the delay). MIT has published most of their course content on the internet - so anybody can become super smart (though they may not get the piece of paper for it). Here is the link - I think I'm going to start on a couple of courses - something fun like Principles of Chemical Science. I'm such a dork - but I need to know more, my head might burst, but its only an intro undergrad course, so hopefully I'll get a tiny bit out of it. I was also thinking about Ethnography - we talk about it all the time, but I'm still not exactly sure what it is. And then there are a bunch on Polymer Physics. Do you think I can change and go to MIT instead? I don't think I mean that, but oh it looks like fun (again, I'm a dork).

Pretend Weekend

So I've put together a really great weekend of things I would do if Miss Em of Cochonet Rouge came to visit. I keep seeing things and thinking of her, so I thought it might be fun to play pretend.

Saturday
Breakfast at Broadway Market, then after perusing all the goodies and shoppes and a meander through London Fields, off to Portobello Road Market for Antiques. And then in the late afternoon we would go to a whole bunch of the auction houses near Bond Street and look at all the wonderful things we could never afford, but would pretend to (Sotheby's is a must). Then for dinner - The Tate Modern for Dinner, the bookshop and all the wonderful art. Then out for drinks - of course, and if someone good was in town a gig.

Sunday
Breakfast at St. Johns on Commercial Street, and then off to Columbia Road Flower Market, where we would both be in heaven among the flowers, hats and vintage crockery. Then lunch wherever. Then to quickly peruse Spitalfield Market, and off to Brick Lane to see what the cool kids are up to. Definitely stopping for a coffee. Then Curry for dinner at a random curry house, and then possibly going to see Avenue Q (I still want to see that).

I've missed out on a few things (all the fantastic normal stores, the V&A - oh that one we can't miss, so maybe that would be a Friday night thing, drinking in Shoreditch, seeing the awesome decor of Rich Mix, and of course the laid back style of Greenwich, the incredible boutiques in Kensington, and so many things I still don't know about) - but I only planned one weekend, so that will have to do. So Miss Em, if you read this, those are some of my favourite things that I think you would enjoy too.

New Music

I recently bought a new album - Martha Wainwright's new album I Know You're Married but I've got Feelings Too. Its quite good, and very much one that grows was you listen to it more and more. I am especially enjoying "Hearts Club Band" and her version of "See Emily Play" - you can see the Pink Floyd version here. I'm looking for more suggestions if anyone has any - I'm due for something fresh.

I <3 Fabric Shopping

I really do absolutely adore fabric shopping. I think it might be one of my favourite things to do in the whole wide world. Its such a wonderful thing to go in and buy something. I only bought 2 pieces - The red is going to be a high-waisted skirt with knife pleats and cobalt accents, and the other one I'm not sure about yet - I think it will be a dress of some kind - with TONS of skirt volume, and a kick-ass gather at the waist on the right hand side. I can't wait. That's the plan for this weekend - new clothes! Now I just need to get a navy t-shirt (as that's what I'm craving the most), and I think I'll be perfectly happy with my summer wardrobe. Maybe a pair of shoes, but that will have to wait until I get paid from my summer job. Sorry about the horrible pictures, I took them using PhotoBooth - definitely not ideal, but I just wanted to share ASAP! Both pieces are 100% cotton, and I didn't look into where they came from, so I'm sorry if I have made an offense there, but I think they are great alternatives to buying fast fashion from the high street (as that's all I could afford otherwise). Maybe I'll wear my new skirt to my first day of work. Okay, I'm now just rambling...

My Bright Turquoise DNA

How do you like my DNA? It's Bright Turquoise - just like me :). I went to a great event at the Wellcome Collection this past weekend with the lovely Emmie. It was the Wellcome Collection's 1st birthday! We found the Origami man, and played with paper. I'm not sure, but I figured out how to fold my little helix from one that was lying on the table, the Origami man seemed to think I was a genius. I don't know, it wasn't that hard. I guess it was all that practice I had from my origami book that Kaori gave me in grade 9, that only had Japanese in it. I don't know. Emmie figured out a lovely star thing as well. Then we went to a talk about Science and Design with Paul Simmons from Timorous Beasties. Great talk - and his outfit was an entirely cute mix of mis-matchey stripes and plaids. I was paying attention to what he said - he really emphasized the need for designers to draw more (something I never do... oops). And he talked a lot about the wonderful macabre imagery in the Wellcome Trust's archive (I think I want to get my hands on some of that stuff). I think that's it for exciting things that happened this weekend, but I was sick, so I think having one cool thing to write about is quite good.

Another Book Report

Well I just found my notes on a book I read awhile back... In The Bubble by John Thackara. I have TONS of notes on this one. They were lost for awhile (they got tucked in with souvenirs from Romania). Really an amazing book. I would have to say, its one of the most well rounded and thoughtful book that I've read so far. If you are thinking about reading something - I suggest this one. I'm not posting my notes, because there are way too many of them. I'll give away one thing, solutions will become about interconnectivity - which I'm coming to realize is extremely important. He talks about schools and colleges not just being a 'teaching place' but more a of a place that is a network of organizations - a hub at the center drawing connections between things that are seemingly unconnected. Just re-reading my notes, makes me want to read the book all over again (it was that relevant)! If you want more of his musings - I have a link to his blog on the sidebar "Doors of Perception".

Can't just be me

Its interesting working as a singular silly little designer in this silly little world. We often think about our own agenda and project our ideas onto society... which never really works. I've always been really focused on technology that can save us from ourselves, and in this last project I've really come to see that it can't be like that. It has to involve as many people as possible - with both big and small efforts. So, do something yourself, and pass it on!

Where do all the Good Ideas Go?

So I've been slowly but surely getting around to some of the degree shows in and around London, and the thing that strikes me is that there are all these kick-ass ideas out there but so few of them get to everybody else. Time to start using some of the new ideas! One of the things that stood out at Middlesex's show was the Product Designer's Market. The photo above is work by Nick Bampton, but check out all the other students as well!

Half of a Book Report

So I read half of a book and thought I would share what I got out of it. I read Utiltity Reassessed: The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design. I thought it was going to be entirely different - I thought it was going to be about Ethics... but it wasn't, it was about Utility Schemes and rationing by the government, focusing on war-time Britain. For that topic it was really good... There was one paper that I enjoyed the most and that was about the idea that consumerism as we know it was created quite deliberately by post-WW1 manufacturers. Makes me wonder if we can deliberately take it back, to turn people back into citizens instead of consumers, because we're not going to be able shop our way out of what we are in the middle of. All in all, very interesting, and I'm glad I picked it up.

Little Green Trees

How glorious of a luxury - making stuff just for fun!  I made these two pieces, as well as started several others.  I tipped off to a really amazing shop in the process - the 4D Model shop.  Its amazing, its pretty much architectural modeling stuff - but to me its like a new form of art supply store, where I don't own everything already (dangerous I know). You can check out my little green trees on etsy too.  I'll be making more stuff soon - and I think I'm falling in love with the green flocking.  I've been thinking of only drawing trees from now on.  I know its not very realistic, but I really love drawing trees.

Book Report - Biomimicry...

Just finished reading Janine Benyus' book Biomimicry.  Its a great book filled with all sorts of things I don't understand (something about tubulin dimers in the brain had me a bit lost).  Nevertheless, it was an amazing read and was full of really great inspiration to look at nature as a model.  Its wonderful to think about all of the places where this can be applied for greater efficiency and innovation - I know my focus is design, but I've also been thinking about how social networks can be based more on a natural principles, dealing more with locality and balance.  I'm not going to give too much away, because I want you to read this one.  I'll give you her tips on how to be a good biomimic.  There are four stages.  1. Quietening  2. Listening  3. Echoing  4. Stewarding.  I think I might still be at the Quietening stage, but I'm certainly working on it.  You can watch Janine Benyus' TED talk here as well... 

Best Reading List in The Whole Wide World

I have this reading list from Unit One, its Stephen Hayworth's list so I definitely cannot take credit for it... I really wanted to digitize it, just in case I lose it, then I decided I should share it (I'm all about the open-source knowledge sharing junk). So here is the link to my scans. Its insanely huge - so maybe if we split it up we'll get it all read! Let me know if you've read anything from the list and we can set up a mini-book report list!

Note to self...

Listen to this...

Trite, Expensive or Impossible

As I'm in the process of reading a few more books on sustainability - I realized one thing.  All of the books seem to offer solutions that are either Trite, Expensive or Impossible.  I hope there is some better theories to come.  I doubt I'll come up with any, but I will certainly continue to read them.  I think I'm going to start classifying the main theories with those labels... Oh, I must be in a horrible mood - I'll have something more hope-filled for you to read tomorrow, I promise!

Contemplation

After all this study, use and contemplation of waste, I still have no solution, I wish I did.  I do have one thing though and that is a bit more insight than before, but no more than most people.  One of the small but important observations I've made is that there is no away - there is a somewhere else... but there is no away.  You can't throw anything away - you can throw it somewhere else - but never away.  Everything will continue existing in one form or another - more beneficially or less, but it will never go away, and so we must be increasingly cautious on how we use our resources and how we think about waste.  I've been thinking about waste not as I used to, but it has opened the door to the contemplation of using it again and again and again.  Seeing it as a raw material, not something to be discarded.

Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job...

I have to get a real job now.  No more cardboard weaving, or dumpster diving... time for a bit of reality. If anyone has any tips or tricks or knows of anything cool that might be related to Textiles or Sustainability - it would be great to know about!  And I need a haircut... I'm thinking of getting bangs (fringe), but I'm worried about the up keep...

A day at the museums

Spent a little time yesterday going to the museums.  I went to the Wellcome Collection for the first time... Great museum!!!  Their exhibit on From Atoms to Patterns was awesome.  Science and design... right up my alley.  I'm going to have to make it a regular haunt!  They even had an interactive game that used your biometric data to create a pattern - how could I not LOVE that???  Oh yeah, and I went to the V&A for a bit of a jaunt yesterday also.

Kind of glad other people are a bit confused...

Was trolling some of my regular haunts this morning and I found this great article from WorldChanging. If you don't feel like reading it basically its about a new computer system called BIMstorm which goes through possible scenarios in order to determine the possible downfall of any given urban planning scheme or building proposal from several different angles (urban planning, building and project managment to name a few). Strangely that's not why I'm writing about this article... I really liked this beginning paragraph, as it seems to sum up a great deal of what I've been encountering lately...

"Although we find ourselves in what has been described as a 'technology gap', I would argue that it is better understood as an implementation gap. Companies, governments, and citizens are rallying and attempting to 'solve' global warming. But the dizzying array of potential solutions is intimidating, as they are mostly untried, often politically difficult, and are sometimes proposed and debunked before decision makers had learned what the hell we were talking about, a la the recent biofuels debate. It is an incredibly challenging climate (sorry) in which to formulate policy, fund untried technologies, change behavior, or restructure our bureaucracy."

It really is quite difficult to find an answer to all of the problems we are faced with - but I just try to keep in mind that starting somewhere is key - it may not be perfect but its a start. Which reminds me - we need to stop being so critical about companies that are doing "something" that others think is "not enough", getting going in the right direction is so very important, and we will kill any future improvements if we keep being overly critical. Question policies and greenwashing - certainly, but do praise companies for beginning... its all going to have to start somewhere...

The Crack is Now Closed

Doris Salcedo's crack closed last month. Here's a photo...



People are still looking at it, they just can't get very close anymore... I wonder what they are going to do to pull it out... New floor or patch it up? I'll let you know next time I go back.

Notes from a nice Day

I went to MADE's event on Textiles and Clothing Sustainability last week (Thursday). It was a really great event with speakers from many diverse fields - it was great to see such a mix! I've scanned in my notes and if you would like to read them in their utter flawed manner (don't use any of the figures I'm sure some of them are wrong). I also met Mark Liu - one of last year's graduates of Textile Futures. He makes some very beautiful pieces all cut with zero fabric waste in the cutting process. I'll write another post about his work as soon as I find all the of the pertinent links. Back to the original reason I'm writing... notes... here they are...

Another Random Top 10

I haven't posted a Top 10 in awhile... So here's a new one on The Top 10 Renewable Gadgets via CleanTechnica...

Catching up on my Treehugger Reading

I've been out of the loop for a bit (focusing on my work I guess).  And I just saw a really cool article on Thermoelectric Textiles made by GMZ Energy... The original treehugger post is here.  I wonder if they'll send me a sample???

nau...

Nau is closing up shop... How unfortunate... I think I might be one of the last to know about it.  Its rather quite sad as they had a wonderful business model and seemed to be doing everything that the sustainable market was looking for - beautiful outdoor clothing made with ethics and sustainability in mind.  Well hopefully this will just be a mini hiatus and they will be back with a vengeance once the economy picks up again.  Thanks treehugger for the heads up!

Another one to the Pile

Sustainabilitiy labels... Here's another one.  This one is called Pharos - a great idea of putting all of the criteria on a scale.  They focus on building materials and its based on a wiki model.  It was launched in 2006 - I found it on coolhunter - so it really shows how much momentum is being created.

Recyclable isn't enough!

Still reading... And I'm getting VERY annoyed with the word 'recyclable'.  What good is something that is 'recyclable' if there is no where to recycle it.  Why do we have a plethora of plastics in our packaging if only types 1 & 2 are easily recyclable?  I've been chatting with some friends in Toronto - who are in the midst of a new garbage and recycling plan - and they are having the hardest time with all of their garbage.  Its time to stand up to all those silly companies who say its 'recyclable'. If the facilities don't exist for consumers - it becomes landfill.  Just needed to say that.

Something I didn't Know

I am in the midst of reading an article about Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) - from which I gather is a chemical used extensively in the creation of water-repellant finishes on textiles.  So I found a word/element I had never heard about before - I'm sure it existed back in the days of high school chemistry - but we certainly didn't talk about it.  Ytterbium(Yb)... They are looking to use it as an alternative catalyst to create a water and oil repellant finish.  As I read through this post, the more I see that it makes no sense.  I'll read more about it and I'll try to figure out how to tell you more about it.  But enjoy the new word... Ytterbium.. 

Textile Group

So I'm always looking for groups doing something more organized about sustainability and textiles.... Well I found another one.  RITE (Reducing the Impact of Textiles on the Environment) has a mandate of exactly what their title says, and has founding members from Leeds University, Marks & Spencer, and EcoTextile News.  They are having a conference on October 7th, 2008 - which I'm pretty sure I'll be going to (wild horses couldn't keep me away).  Thanks to EcoTextile News for the info (and thank you to the UAL library for finally getting EcoTextile News in the library).

Great Postcard in the Mail

From my Lovely Jenn... I got a wonderful postcard with this image on it - and most importantly this quote....

"If I was concerned about being accepted, I would have been doing Ansel Adams lookalikes, because that was easily accepted. Everything I did was never accepted... but luckily for me, my interest in the subject and my passion of the subject took me to the point that I wasn't wounded by that, and eventually people came around to me."
Duane Michals

Digital ReadyMade

Woo-hoo to digital media!  I've been pining for my ReadyMade Mag for while (I even missed an issue now that I live on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean).  When I heard that they came out with a digital issue I nearly jumped out of my chair with happiness and joy.  Its even free this month - and its the green issue, how much better could it actually get?  Now if only Selvedge (there's a link down on the sidebar to that one) went back to the digital issue too - then I would be a happy camper - but at least I can get that one at the library now. 

Waiting for an epiphany

I'm waiting for my epiphany, its there I know it, about 5 inches to the right of my grasp.  Its wholey annoying - I know its there, something actually interesting, and hopefully new.  I'll just keep on reading and hoping something will catalyze a kick-ass concept.  I'll let you know if and when it happens.

To Read

I just want to remind myself to read this... Its Ann Thorpe on Design as activism from treehugger.  Sorry for the lack of posts - I've been out galavanting.  Read this too..

Visit Garbage!

Just reminding peeps about my other garbage related blog Garbage!. You get to find out all sorts of things, like what kind of things I've picked up off the ground lately as well as what I bought at the grocery store - how exciting.

Missing the Trees

Although the trees at home don't have leaves yet, I'm sure missing the great outdoors. Just thought I'd post this here to remind myself of the beauty of nature! Man, I need to get outside more! (Picture is from my Gaspesie trip in Sept 2007)

Things in My Life I've Learned So Far.

I linked to this site today... Wonderfully resonant! Thanks to Design-Milk for the tip off! The piece above is called "Doing things just for fun is fun." - how perfect. If only I could get that through to some people!