Musings

Rima's Magical World

2008-07-16T07:34:00.002-04:00

To begin this little story:
It was once upon o’clock
When a jumping jackanory
Called to his ticking flock:

“Come and spin a yarn with me
Around this loom of time,
And I’ll tell you horologically
Of the spinning wheel of rhyme.”

So prefaces the workshop of the talented Rima of The Hermitage. I am so thrilled to have recently discovered her. It is like walking into a magic shop. Her imagination is as boundless as her talent. She has now taken to making clocks. I think this is going to be a very successful endeavor for her. Please check out her creations, along with the wonderful clock sound effect, (created specifically for her site by her talented boyfriend) at Once upon o'clock ...

I am off to the Doctor...tick tock

Enchantment

2008-07-15T12:21:00.002-04:00

...The dreams of childhood - its airy fables; its graceful, beautiful, humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond: so good to be believed in once, so good to be remembered when outgrown...

~Charles Dickens

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

~Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943

I have not been feeling well, my blood pressure has been high and I have been sick from the excessive heat and humidity. I have had to rest and take care of myself. I did two things to lift my mood. I bought Maddie's delightful photograph, and re-read The Little Prince. I feel so much better, art does heal. Tomorrow I will go to the Doctor so he can titrate my pills.

What heals you?

Shinto

2008-07-14T20:51:00.003-04:00

Shinto by Jorge Luis Borges

When sorrow lays us low
for a second we are saved
by humble windfalls
of the mindfulness or memory:
the taste of a fruit, the taste of water,
that face given back to us by a dream,
the first jasmine of November,
the endless yearning of the compass,
a book we thought was lost,
the throb of a hexameter,
the slight key that opens a house to us,
the smell of a library, or of sandalwood,
the former name of a street,
the colors of a map,
an unforeseen etymology,
the smoothness of a filed fingernail,
the date we were looking for,
the twelve dark bell-strokes, tolling as we count,
a sudden physical pain.

Eight million Shinto deities
travel secretly throughout the earth.
Those modest gods touch us--
touch us and move on.

Mr.Man

2008-07-13T21:25:00.003-04:00

The wonderful Wanderer's Daughter finished Cael portrait. It is simply beautiful. Thank you Maia. I am so touched.

Swan Lake @ Wetten dass 2008-01-26

2008-07-13T15:06:00.001-04:00

Double click to open in another window so that my site music does not disturb you. It is so worth watching, it has actually been helping me come out of my hibernation. Enjoy!

Hibernation

2008-07-01T13:10:00.001-04:00

I will be hibernating for a bit...

Old

2008-06-30T08:27:00.004-04:00

I didn't want to get up, I wanted to stay in bed. The short week looms ahead and I am not looking forward to it. The throng of tourists will start decending on us soon. I want a quiet celebration, I don't want celebrate in margaritaville.

F.I.R. - 月牙灣

2008-06-29T18:10:00.001-04:00

This song (which I do not know what is called) was playing in China everywhere when I went to pick up my son. I went into a music store, hummed the music as best as I could. Amid the throngs of laughter from the cashier girls, they located it. The group is called F.I.R. They are very popular in Asia, the lead singer is Thai.

Beautiful Words

2008-06-28T11:06:00.003-04:00

I googled beautiful words and this list came out. What do you guys think? For me, the two most beautiful words are pictured above.

Most beautiful words in the English language by diaskeaus

adroit: Dexterous, agile.
adumbrate: To very gently suggest.
aestivate: To summer, to spend the summer.
ailurophile: A cat-lover.
amaryllis: Bulbous plants which have large red or pink flowers.
anemone: Any of various plants of the buttercup family, having petal-like sepals.
aqua: A light greenish-blue color.
asphodel: Plants having white, pink, or yellow flowers in elongated clusters.
banana: Herbs having a crown of large, entire leaves and a hanging cluster of fruits.
beatific: Befitting an angel or saint.
beleaguer: To exhaust with attacks.
blandiloquent: Beautiful and flattering.
bliss
blossom
blue
bobolink
bubble
bumblebee
butterfly
caliginous: Dark and misty.
camellia
cerulean
chalice
champagne: An effervescent wine.
chatoyant: Like a cat's eye.
chattanooga
cherish
chiaroscuro: The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
chimes
choas: The exponential divergence of two arbitrarily close points in phase space.
cockle: A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
coconut
colporteur: A book peddler.
conflate: To blend together, to combine different things.
cosmopolitan
cozy
cuspidor
cute
cynosure: A focal point of admiration.
damask
dawn
delicacy
destiny
desuetude: Disuse.
diaphanous: Filmy.
diffuse: Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
dulcet: Sweet, sugary.
ebullient: Bubbling with enthusiasm.
effervescent: Bubbly.
efflorescence: Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
elixir: A good potion.
elysium: Any place or state of perfect happiness; paradise.
emollient: A softener.
encomium: A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
inglenook: The place beside the fireplace.
enthusiasm
ephemeral: Short-lived.
epicure: A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
epiphany: A sudden revelation.
erstwhile: At one time, for a time.
eschew: To reject or avoid.
esculent: Edible.
esoteric: Understood only by a small group of specialists.
eternity
ethereal: Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
etiolate: White from no contact with light.
evanescent: Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
explosion
extravaganza
exuberant: Enthusiastic, excited.
fantastic
fawn
felicitous: Pleasing.
fescue: A variety of grass favored for pastures.
flabbergasted
flip-flop
foudroyant: Dazzling.
fragile: Very, very delicate.
freedom
fugacious: Running, escaping.
fuselage
galaxy
gambol: To skip or leap about joyfully.
gazebo
giggle
glamour: Beauty.
golden
gorgeous
gossamer: The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk.
gothic
grace
gracious
gum
halcyon: Happy, sunny, care-free.
harbors of memory
hen-night
hiccup
hilarious
hippopotamus
hodgepodge
home
hope
hush
hymeneal: Having to do with a wedding.
if
imbricate: To overlap to form a regular pattern.
imbroglio: An altercation or complicated situation.
imbue: To infuse, instill.
incipient: Beginning, in an early stage.
ingénue: A naïve young woman.
inspissate: To thicken.
inure: To jade.
jejune: Dull; childish.
jonquil
kangaroo
lagniappe: A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
lagoon: A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
languor: Listlessness, inactivity.
lassitude: Weariness, listlessness.
laughter: The response to something funny.
liberty
lilt: To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
lithe: Slender and flexible.
lollipop
loquacious: Talkative.
love
lovely
lullaby
luminous
luxuriant: Thick, lavish.
marigold
meandering
mellifluous: Sweet-sounding.
melody
mignonette
missive: A message or letter.
mist
moiety: One of two equal parts, a half.
moment
mondegreen: A misanalyzed phrase.
mother
murmuring
myrrh
nebulous: Foggy.
nevermore
niveous: Snowy, snow-like.
nobility
obsequious: Fawning, subservience.
odalisque: A concubine in a harem.
oeuvre: A work.
offing: That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
oi
oleander
onomatopoeia: The creation of words by imitating sound.
oriole
paean: A formal expression of praise.
palimpsest: A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
panacea: A complete solution for all problems.
panoply: A complete set.
paradox
passion
pastiche: A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
pavement
peace
peccadillo: A peculiarity.
peek-a-boo
pelagic: Related to the sea or ocean.
penumbra: A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
peregrination: Wandering, travels.
petrichor: The smell of earth after a rain.
plethora: A great quantity.
porcelain: A fine white clay pottery.
potamophilous: Loving rivers.
propinquity: An inclination or preference.
pumpkin
pyrrhic: Victorious despite heavy losses.
quintessential: The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
rainbow
redolent: Sweet-smelling.
renaissance
rhapsody: A beautiful musical piece.
riparian: Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
ripple: A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
rosemary
scintillate: To sparkle with brilliant light.
sempiternal: Forever and ever.
sentiment
seraglio: Housing for a harem.
serendipity: Finding something while looking for something else.
shenandoah
shipshape
smashing
smile
smithereens
soliloquy: Dramatic speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections.
sophisticated
summer: afternoon
sunflower
sunshine
surreptitious: Sneaky.
susurrus: Producing a hushing sound, like flowing water.
sweetheart
sycamore
symbiosis: Interdependence of two different species.
syzygy: The direct opposition of two heavenly bodies.
talisman: A symbolic object believed to have magical powers.
tendril
terpsichorean: Related to dance.
thrush
tickle
tintinnabulation: Ringing.
tranquil
tranquility
twinkle
umbrageous: Shady.
umbrella
vermillion
vestige: A small fragment.
whisper: Speaking without vibrating the vocal folds.
whoops
wisteria
zing
zyzzyva: A kind of beetle.

Comfort

2008-06-26T19:06:00.004-04:00

Photographer: Robert Wyatt

One of my favorite things to do when in a foreign city, is get lost in a little cafe. Not some exotic, "it" place, but a place where the locals frequent, day in and day out. Don't you love the familiarity of those places? Every city has them. What is your favorite thing to do in a foreign city?

Child of mine

2008-06-25T14:25:00.001-04:00

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~Rabindranath Tagore

Seven Words (In Memory of George 1937-2008)

2008-06-23T09:28:00.001-04:00

Good bye George, we will miss you dearly. You were an amazing comic performer and social commentator. There will not be another like you.

Women and Fearlessness

2008-06-22T13:25:00.009-04:00

LET me not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield
but to my own strength.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant me that I may not be a coward,
feeling your mercy in my success alone;
but let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941)
Source: 'Fruit Gathering' - Gurudev Rabindranath

For most women, beauty and body issues are the easiest path to awakening, because the pain is so very close to the surface and the inner critic’s voice is the easiest to hear. The beauty of awakening is getting this, down to your bones, so that the world no longer needs to play our internal dramas on the backdrop of life. We can watch the drama as it comes and goes, maybe making a genuine wise crack, or just laughing at our own antics.

We stop looking to manifest abundance; we are abundance. Even without a job. Even when you give away the majority of what you create. Even when there is no one but ourselves standing at the finish line to thank us for doing out part to help save the world.

Robin Rice
Source: ShapeShifting Beauty: A Kaleidoscope

"The original oppression of Woman was based on crude denigration. She caused Man to fall, so she became a scapegoat. No, not a scapegoat which might be blameless but a culprit richly deserving of whatever suffering Man chose thereafter to heap on her. That is Woman in the Book of Genesis. Out here, our ancestors, without the benefit of hearing about the Old Testament, made the very same story differing only in local color. At first the Sky was very close to the Earth. But every evening Woman cut off a piece of the Sky to put in her soup pot, or in another version, she repeatedly banged the top end of her pestle carelessly against the Sky whenever she pounded millet or, as in yet another rendering—so prodigious is Man’s inventiveness, she wiped her kitchen hands in the Sky’s face. Whatever the detail of Woman’s provocation, the Sky moved away in anger, and God with it.

‘Well, that kind of candid chauvinism might be ok for the rugged taste of the Old Testament. The New Testament required a more enlightened, more refined, more loving even, strategy—ostensibly that is. So the idea came to Man to turn his spouse into the very Mother of God, to pick her up from right under his foot where she'd been since Creation and carry her reverently to a nice, corner pedestal. Up there, her feet completely off the ground, she will be just as irrelevant to the practical decisions of running the world as she was in her bad old days. The only difference is that now Man will suffer no guilt feelings; he can sit back and congratulate himself on his generosity and gentle manliness.

‘Meanwhile, our ancestors out here, unaware of the New Testament, were working out independently a parallel subterfuge of their own. Nneka, they said. Mother is supreme. Let us keep her in reserve until the ultimate crisis arrives and the waist is broken and hung over the fire, and the palm bears its fruit at the tail of its leaf. Then, as the world crashes around Man’s ears, Woman in her supremacy will descend and sweep the shards together.

‘The women are, of course, the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world and, if we are to believe the Book of Genesis, the very oldest.

Chinua Achebe (1930 - )
Source: Anthills of the Savannah, Page: 97-99

"Do something you fear, NOT to conquer the fear, NOT to accomplish a task, but to familiarize yourself with the processes with which fear protects itself, to demystify it." ~ Cheri Huber, The Fear Book ~

The lover must often say, "I love because I must, because I will it. I love for myself, not for others. I love for the joy it gives me - and incidentally, only - for that joy it gives to others. If they reinforce me it will be good. If they do not, it also will be good, for I will to love."
Leo F. Buscaglia
Source: Love : What Life Is All

If you have yet to be called an incorrigible, defiant woman,don't worry, there is still time..
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Source: Women Who Run With The Wolves

Amazing artist.

2008-06-20T12:12:00.002-04:00

I no longer post pictures of my children in a public blog. I now post pictures from behind or side, where their faces are not discernable. I am breaking the rule here because I am just in awe over Maia's portrait of my son. This is the work in progress, not the finished product, but it is amazing in its accuracy. She is a gifted illustrator, one of her many talents. Here is the website of some of her work: Verlicht Studio.

The Scent of a Woman

2008-06-19T16:52:00.004-04:00

I was inspired by Relyn's beautiful post today on perfume. She was singing the praises of L’heure bleue by Guerlain. I love perfume, I never leave the house without it, just like my grandmother used to do. My fragrance of choice is horribly old fashioned, I love Miss Dior. I have others that I wear but I always go back to Miss Dior. What do you wear? Where does it take you?

Mongol, Theatrical Full Trailer

2008-06-18T18:21:00.001-04:00

Award-winning Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (PRISONER OF THE MOUNTAINS) illuminates the life and legend of Genghis Khan in his stunning historical epic, MONGOL. Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, MONGOL delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. MONGOL shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor.

Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, MONGOL transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger. In a performance of powerful stillness and subtlety, celebrated young Japanese actor Asano Tadanobu (ZATOICHI, LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE) captures the inner fire that enabled a hunted boy to become a legendary conqueror. Asano's achievement is matched by those of his co-stars, including the radiant newcomer Khulan Chuluun as Temudgin's courageous, spirited wife Borte, and the Chinese actor Honglei Sun (THE ROAD HOME) as the Mongol chieftain Jamukha, Temudgin's dearest friend and deadliest enemy. Masterfully blending action and emotion against some of the most arresting terrain on earth, Bodrov delivers an exciting and awe-inspiring tale of survival and triumph, and a love story for the ages.

This film will be release on Friday to limited theatres. I am very interested in it, as my daughter is Mongolian. Seems to be a very well made film. Hopefully they will show it here.

Interesting Article in Anti-Racist Parents

2008-06-18T12:01:00.003-04:00

This American Life, aired a piece on NPR–on January 18, 2008–about a Nurse/Actress who worked in toy store FAO Schwartz’s Newborn Nursery Here is the toy store’s promotional quote:

What You Will Experience When You Visit a Newborn Nursery:
"As you enter the area, you’ll hear sounds of happy baby noises cooing from the nursery viewing area. When you peek through the glass, you’ll see a variety of babies with all different complexions and hair and eye colors. It’s almost too difficult to choose just one bundle of joy to take home! Once you do make your selection, a sales associate dressed like a real nurse, will help you put on your hospital gown. Papers are then completed with the baby’s name, address, and birth date. The “nurse” will carry your baby out of the isolette and will place him or her on a changing table. She’ll conduct a full health examination of your baby and then she’ll teach you how to hold your baby. New “parents” can shop for accessories (including dresses, blankets, shoes and more.) to make their new arrival the prettiest baby on the block!"
(There are a lot of things about the way FAO Schwartz handles infant doll adoptions that really bother me, but I am going to focus on adoption and race issues here.)

The 17-minute American Life story is so worth listening to (download the whole “Matchmakers” show here and then fast forward to 41:00 minutes). The narrator is a light-skinned biracial (White and Mexican) woman working as a ‘nurse’. WARNING: PLOT SPOILER AHEAD . . . The dolls/babies begin to move quickly after they are featured on a segment of the TV show ‘Rich Girls’. Most of the ‘adopting mothers’ (approximate age: 7 years old) are White. Not surprisingly (to me at least), FAO Schwartz sells out of all the White baby dolls–within weeks of Christmas. The doll factory is back-ordered until mid-January. FAO Schwartz’s doll nursery has only minority Babies of Color available for sale adoption.

After the White babies are gone, then the Asian babies sell out. Next to go are the light brown (Latino/Hispanic, Native American, multiracial?) babies. The nursery is then full of Black babies–along with one factory-rejected White doll (with melted-together fingers that make its hands look like flippers). The unsellable factory-reject White floor-model doll is purchased adopted when there is an entire ‘nursery’ full of perfect Black babies dolls available.

Nothing about this story surprises me; it is simply play (some would say art) imitating life. I’m going to talk about supply and demand here. Let’s pretend we’re just talking about the FAO Schwartz doll nursery.

The people paying for the dolls/adoption are (for the most part) wealthy White parents, with White daughters choosing their baby to adopt doll. The parents want their daughter to have a White doll. Most of the daughters want a White doll. When all the White dolls have already been sold adopted by other little-girl-mothers, the racial hierarchy of doll-adoption flows the same way it does for children in real life. (Although in real life there is also the parallel gender-preference hierarchy. In the toy nursery, the ‘adoptive mothers’ simply state that their dolls/babies are girls. In real life, the adoptive parents request girls and the boys just wait.)

Here’s a real-life paralell example: a site that hosts pre-adoptive parent profiles*, families waiting for domestic–usually infant–adoption (NOTE: this site only accepts heterosexual, married couples–and most are Christian as well). Of the hundreds of currently listed waiting families:

88% would ‘accept’ a White baby
33% would ‘accept’ a South American or Hispanic baby
28% would ‘accept’ an Asian baby
26% would ‘accept’ a Native American baby
14% would ‘accept’ a Black baby

I ran these same stats for an article I wrote two years ago, and the numbers were just about the same. For biracial babies (White/____) the numbers of families willing to ‘accept’ a child rises. Adoptive parents still think raising a part-White biracial child will be easier, less complicated, than raising a ‘full’ (for example) African American child. (Ha!)

There are also the corollary international adoption statistics. The top 10 ’sending’ countries for 2006 provided U.S. families with 18,290 new children through international adoption. By region of the world, these children are from:

43% from Asia (China, Korea, India)
26% from Eastern Europe (Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine)
24% from Central and South America (Guatemala, Colombia)
7% from Africa (Ethiopia, Liberia)

The parts of this doll adoption story that strike deep inside me echo the same heart-issues I have with race and adoption in real life. Although transracial adoption should not be taken lightly (At all!), I have been kept up many a night thinking of all those Children of Color waiting for adoptive families, all those pregnant women seeking families for their unborn Children of Color. When will skin color and race be just one more thing we see when we look at someone (like their gender or their height)? When will light skin stop being a tally in the ‘plus’ category and dark skin a tally in the ‘minus’ category? If we as transracially adoptive parents are not expected (or able) to get past this light/dark skin-tone scale, who will?

I remember one pre-adoptive parent I was working with who was considering switching from the willing-to-accept-a-White-baby-only category to the ‘biracial’ category. This parent had a potential ‘match’ and wanted to know if their unborn biracial child would look ‘more White or more Black’. I gave the standard multiracial-children-come-in-all-shades response. But what I really wanted to say was, “If you have to ask that question, I don’t think you get it.” Black/White biracial is Black. If a parent can’t accept a ‘full’ Black child as their own, how can they embrace the Black-ness of a biracial child? As a country, we must be willing, no, committed to discussing race and racism and White privilege–as they relate to adoption and foster care (and to everything else).

Although I believe that no one should adopt a child they do not feel prepared to parent (race/ethnicity or known special needs), becoming a parent is not a multiple choice menu. Just because parents engineer their child to be what they desire or (in the case of adoptive parents) are ‘willing to accept’–that does not by any means guarentee the menu-selected individual will be the child those parents receive (through birth or adoption). When you have children, you get what you get–much of your child is unknown no matter how you build your family. The unknowns involved in building a family are both magical and scary, but IMO worth all the risk.

* NOTE: Finding accurate statistics for domestic adoption is impossible. Statistics are collected for almost all states for foster care adoption, but infant adoption is regulated by individual states, and neither states nor the federal government collect these statistics.

Natasha Sky is a multiracial woman, a writer, an artist, and an activist—as well as the fulltime mother of four young multiracial children. Two of her children joined her family through open domestic adoption and two of her children joined her family through homebirth. Natasha created MultiracialSky.com, a website of resources for multiracial families. During naptime, she blogs about multiracial family life.

2008-06-17T10:22:00.001-04:00

"Love, with very young people, is a heartless business. We drink at that age from thirst, or to get drunk; it is only later in life that we occupy ourselves with the individuality of our wine." Isak Dinesen

"The entire being of a woman is a secret which should be kept." Isak Dinesen

Every Man's Dream

2008-06-16T11:35:00.002-04:00

Every woman's eyesore and nightmare. Yes, my husband got his dream of a large TV. I now house a TV that is larger than my living room. Why do men do this?

2008-06-14T12:39:00.000-04:00

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Jottum

2008-06-13T12:41:00.008-04:00

There is a quality to the children's clothes that Jottum makes that I absolutely love. I think they are romantic and otherworldly. They remind you of childhood's past. I do not like modern styles on childen or clothes that are trendy and garish. No Hannah Montana, no baby Phat, no glitter. What I love is well made clothes with a sense of nostalgia. I am enjoying the early years when I can still dress them. Heavens knows what they are going to insist on wearing when they are older.

Here is the bio on Jottum's designer from her webpage:

The designer Anky Groothof

Profile
I am a mother of 6 children ranging in age from 15 to 28. I am married to actor/theatre producer Frank Groothof. Since my childhood, I have enjoying working with textiles, especially clothing. I have always been fascinated by the fact that by taking something as simple as a piece of fabric and making an item of clothing it is possible to create a complete new world as an extension of your imagination. My father was a furniture maker and when the upholsterer came by to upholster the newly made chairs, he gave me all the remnants that his daughter, the curtain seamstress, had saved for me. And because at the time there was little money to buy what you needed or wanted, I developed a keen eye for the potential of what was available. Like turning my uncle’s old chalk stripe suit into a trendy dress. This proved a fertile breeding ground for developing my creativity. Besides clothing, I’ve also designed costumes for theatre productions, but my true passion lies in making clothing collections for children. Which is what I have been doing for Jottum since 1996.

Character
A romantic, a perfectionist, always seeking harmony, in relationships, in form, in colour and model, in light and mood. Finds it difficult to make concessions in this respect.
Always tries to find the right balance. Can be very unhappy when it eludes me. People say that I want to make the world more beautiful by the way I dress, for example (people often think that I’m on my way to a party). Personally, I’m not conscious of my motives, it’s simply the clothes I like to work in. For me, it’s just the human function that clothes can have, it not only expresses your personality, your origins, your state of mind, your position or the task that you are facing at a given moment, but in particular the atmosphere that you want to have around you in order to support the mood that you’re in. What is more, with something as relatively attainable as clothing in which taste, colour, form, fantasy, personality and culture are reflected, you can add something to your environment. As far as that is concerned I often regard what I see on the street in the Netherlands as very ugly. It is fascinating to then see how creative people dare to be, perhaps precisely as a result of a lack of money, fantasy and good taste. It need not necessarily be expensive to make something of your clothes. Just look at other cultures, the rich embroidery, clothes made from all kinds of fabric remnants, beads, ribbons, etc. The love and attention reflected by it, the pride with which it is worn. This is also an important point of departure in my designs. To make a child feel proud and happy about the clothing he or she is wearing and made from materials that feel good, in which pretty details have been incorporated and that reflect the maker’s love for the child and the profession.

Insomnia

2008-06-13T00:12:00.001-04:00

How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the night-light. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things. ~Dorothy Parker

Adversity

2008-06-11T07:23:00.002-04:00

When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity. ~John F. Kennedy, address, 12 April 1959

Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive. ~Josephine Hart

To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered. ~Oscar Wilde

Bad Hair

2008-06-10T14:21:00.003-04:00

I am having a bad hair day. I woke up with a migraine, and nothing I have done today, has gone towards getting anything done.

Puppy Owns German Shepard

2008-06-09T19:36:00.001-04:00