Oh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away
“Gimme Shelter” sing the Rolling Stones and that is what the folks at Japan Fair were all about. Japan Fair was a fundraiser for ShelterBox. It closed last night, but here’s hoping it was a very successful event.
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MiaMai’s Monica Outlander has just released her Luxe collection for spring. It includes a dress, top, pants, jumpsuit and long skirt with items coordinated to mix and match. Items include a HUD that allows you to choose the belts, ribbons and other embellishments so you can coordinate tops with skirts and pants easily. I am wearing the Kalia top with the Anya skirt and chose the ribbon to coordinate with the skirt’s print. Each item comes in solids in cotton and silk and in a range of prints. I love the thought that went into the print and color coordination. Speaking of color coordination, check out the gorgeous gold-tip mani/pedis from FLAIR for Cosmetics Fair.
I sometimes joke that my love of art began while playing Masterpiece, the art auction board game. But, that was purely superficial. My lifelong deep appreciation for art came from my art teacher. I actually had two art teachers, a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. S. She taught 7th and 8th grade art and he taught 9th-12th. Since our entire class took art in 7th & 8th grade, her classes were larger and much more basic. She was a good teacher and I liked her, but her husband was a great teacher, a master teacher and I loved him. Not only did I learn a lot about art from him, but I also learned about teaching and humanity.
He was a preternaturally calm teacher, steering his way through life on such an even keel that even a hurricane could not twist him about. He may have grown up on a farm and taught in a small farming town and lived on a farm himself, but he brought an urbane sophistication to life – sharing with us his appreciation of modern culture, music, books, movies and artists that were often unheard of. He was active in the community, persuading the town council to fund a city-owned art gallery that brought art into our town. Imagine a town of 1400 people with an arts center with revolving exhibitions, musical theatre, art classes, writing workshops, music lessons and even a recording studio all funded by the city and the grants that he helped pursue. During these years of retrenchment and austerity, that such a small town continues to support the arts – well, if only there were more teachers like him in towns across America.
Intrigue Co has a fun little watercolor pose prop for the budding watercolorists of Second Life – a fitting contribution to the watercolor theme for April’s Collabor88. It even comes with framed and ready to hang copies of the finished work. I didn’t actually use the poses because they are made for painting on the floor or in the grass, not on an artist’s work table, but since I just moved and put in a place to paint in a corner of my kitchen, I decided to use it there.
The thing about Mr. S was that he encouraged us to draw outside the lines, but not just on paper. As he saw it, the rules were there as a guide – to make sure we rubbed along comfortably in life, but that they were not a limit. That when it made sense and it was worth it, it was okay to break the rules and that sometimes the rules needed to be broken. Civil disobedience was, in his eyes, was drawing outside the lines to realize a better world just as drawing outside the lines often realizes a better painting.
I go out to work on a Monday morning
Tuesday I go off to honeymoon
I’ll be back again before it’s time for Sunny-down,
I’ll be lazing on a Sunday afternoon Continue reading
I have company on the way over to watch the finale of True Detective – so just pictures today!
Well, I am back and the finale was amazing! So today I put together a jacket from Decoy with a black and white skirt from VN and some gorgeous shoes from The Secret Store. The jacket is gorgeous and will go with lots of outfits – a great mix and match staple from Collabor88. I love the jacket but it will occasionally glitch at the elbows. A longer alpha would solve that, but then you would have the hollow up the arm problem. An occasional glitch through is, I think, better than the hollow sleeve all the time.
This gorgeous new Belted Dress from Gizza demonstrates how much textures affect clothing. Giz Seom made this with a casual, everyday argyle as well as this glamorous club-hopping snakeskin. The argyle has a turtleneck collar as well while the snakeskin has a jeweled necklace that I decided not to wear – going for something simpler. You can see the options from the vendor picture below.
Meanwhile, The Arcade has inspired me to have a vacation home in the mountains. The lodge from Scarlet Creative is a snug, small little cabin which is what you want. You don’t want such a big vacation home that you spend all your vacation cleaning. I have been decorating it with lots of items from The Arcade, including the wonderful ISPACHI wood carvings. There were some excellent electric signs from Seven Emporium and you can assume what you will about the one I chose.
As interesting as many of Berry’s memes may be, I skip most of them because I have my own voice and don’t want my own posts and ideas lost in weekly memes. However, this week’s meme is about one of my favorite things – books! I cannot resist.
I just love the sweater vest from Tee*fy for this round of Collabor88. My Mom would knit me one every year just like them, though she used this super-fine, lightweight yarn that was so soft. I loved them all. Azure Electricteeth layered the sweater vest with an oxford-cloth shirt though she didn’t tuck the shirt in which would have made my mom tsk-tsk and not let me out the door. She was a stickler!
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While my family was very poor when I was growing up, I seldom felt the pinch of poverty. For one thing, the county I lived in was one of the poorest in the nation so a lot of people were poor. Even with the casinos that have opened since then, a quarter of the population still lives below the poverty level. Poverty is relative, so with so many other people being in the same boat, it was just the way things were.
My parents made a comfortable life for us despite poverty with hunting, gardening, fishing and making everything from soap to candles to clothing. Nearly everything was hand made – even my hockey sticks and skis. And my winter coats.
I managed to get into the Maitreya sale last night and after waiting forEVER to rez I finally did a little shopping – have a gander at what I got at 50% off!
shirt, shoes and jeans…. oh my!
see more after the cut…..
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