More '70s Time Travel

 Mushrooms!  Orange and yellow color themes!  Sweet daisies!  It's the '70s!

I was 11 as the 1970s began, and as I was the oldest child, and lacked older cousins or hip babysitters, I missed the Peace-Love '60s.   I only knew what a "hippie" was from novels or from reading "Time" magazine.  But I remember the 1970s!  My  16-year-old daughter is taking an apparel class this semester in high school, and she is fascinated by the punk fashions of the late '70s.

 Daisies...there were daisies everywhere in the 1970s.

She was disappointed when I explained that I never even saw punk fashion until I was out of college and was going to clubs.  Alas, she doesn't realize that the 1970s was about Earth Shoes, Ditto jeans, baseball jersey tee shirts (my favorite one said "32", for some special reason that now eludes me), plaid pants, and lots and lots of polyester knits, especially for dresses and pant suits, which girls were allowed to wear to school in the 7th grade on Fridays only.

Remember the Ecology flag?  Somewhere I have a patch with this design!

But, wait, there's more!  The 1970s I remember the most was the "back to nature" world of Whole Earth Catalogs, Mother Earth News, the ecology flag and those "ecology collages," which were wooden boxes with various-sized compartments and a glass top.

 This awesome book cover got me thinking about the 1970s.

Click the large size to appreciate the details.

We created primitive assemblages in those boxes, complete with seashells, river rocks and seed pods (or dry beans and popcorn kernels if you couldn't find the cool stuff) filling each little square.  We'd hunt through magazines for a dreamy nature photo--a seashore or forest scene, then we'd add a niche-appropriate plastic animal.  The boxes were hung in our dens and kitchens, next to a macrame piece woven on a real branch,  until bugs ruined the corn kernels or the seed pods grew moldy fuzz.

 Kwai Chang Caine, the Shaolin priest who wandered the American West.

My favorite part of the 1970s?  Well, I was a huge, huge fan of "Kung Fu," the ABC show starring the late David Carradine.  I wanted so much to be like the soft-spoken hero, Kwai Chang Caine.  I spent hours drawing dragons and tigers on my inner arms (and the arms of my friends) with ball point pen.  I watched the show, read the tie-in books and clipped any photos I could find.  In late high school, I took Shotokan Karate, rising to a 3rd degree green belt (one level below brown belt), which was a testimony to my discipline because I have no natural athletic ability.  Even today I still like the show--I have all three seasons in boxed DVD sets, but the first season and the first half of season two contain my favorite episodes.

I have to go find some apparel from the 1970s for my daughter's project--at this stage, all I think I have left is some costume jewelry and a couple Bicentennial scarves.  I wore snap-front denim jumper and a "Spirit of '76" scarf knotted around my throat for my junior high school photo.  Maybe I'll give my daughter that!

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Invitation, daisies, ecology flag, and photo of "Kung Fu" lead David Carradine, courtesy of Google Search and Flickr.  "How to Tell it's the 1970s" is a digital art piece created by C. Bruhn

Swaps & a Summer Tea

We've been busy here at El Rancho Not So Grande.  On Monday, we had a Summer Solstice Tea, complete with homemade blueberry tea muffins, chocolate-covered strawberries, cucumber sandwiches and other dainties.

My daughter and one of her friends did the baking.

I did the set up and took photos.

Her guests dressed in Steampunk or Sweet Lolita Style.

While they were having fun, I continued with my swaps preparation for the Paper Cowgirl Altered Art Retreat.  Be warned, the following are spoiler pix of my swaps items!

With my daughter's help (she can sew--I can't!), I finished my Rodeo Queen Sash.  I hope my partner likes it.  I made a decorated hanger with a vintage hanger (someone else covered it in plaid material) so she can display her sash without damaging it.

I used scraps from other swaps and little mesh bags to make holders for my blossom swap items.

Here is one of my 21 ATCs.  If you look carefully on the bottom, you can see "Dallas."  I used a Texas road map for the background! 

I got a little carried away with my Faithful Horse swap pieces.  We have six swappers but I've got way more than six ponies.  They have lots of details, including embossed designs, flower extras and yarn reins!

Dog Days

Last year, I had 11 different foster dogs.  I get them from my local Shelter, where I volunteer.  I take care of them, then help them find new homes.  Currently, I have two fosters--the tiny Chihuahua my daughter (yes, she has dyed her hair green-blue for the Summer) is trying to snuggle.

This is my other foster, a little whippet-like mixed breed named "Tucker."

This is my own dog, our darling little rat terrier mix, Cross.  She is sweet and loves to give kisses, which is really why she is sticking her tongue out.

And this doesn't have a thing to do with dogs. It's a shot of my daughter's shoes and socks, which she wore with a sparkly party dress, to the Band Banquet.  She has her own unique style, and it never ceases to amaze and amuse me!

How's your summer going?  We're making crafts (I have Mod-Podge and hot glue stuck on my nails as I type this).  Leave me a note about the fun stuff going on at your rancho!

Off to A-Kon

I am heading out this morning with my 16-year-old daughter to A-Kon, one of the longest-running anime-based convention in North America. Celebrating it’s 21st year in 2010, A-Kon is held at the Dallas, TX, Sheraton and will offer a weekend filled with non-stop gaming, anime-films, cosplay, meet-ups, shopping and other pursuits designed to send anime fans into a nerdy tizzy.

My daughter has three different outfits planned--an elegant Steampunk affair (think Victorian style without the bustles, and with grungy gears and lots of black), a cosplay (costuming as a character, in this case, as Kiki, the good little witch from "Kiki's Delivery Service) and as a Sweet Lolita (which has nothing to do with with Nabokov's book other than the fact that the dresses look like the frilly concoctions you once yearned to put on your three-year-old).

I'm the adult-in-charge.  I'll be there to watch out for her, hand out money, make sure she eats, and in the mean-time, I'll be chatting up the unique folks who attend these cons (as they are called) and taking photos.  We're staying nearby, so I'll get a break from the frenzy.  And it will be frenetic.  I was a proto-nerd as a child, but we didn't have the Interwebs, so I ouldn't find all those other kids who were weird like I was.

Cute Happy Fun Time

I love my scanner.  With a few clicks of the mouse, ephemera bits take on a new life.  I love kawaii  (cute) Japanese graphics, and so I save the packaging from Japanese products, including snacks, household goods and craft supplies.

This happy kitty was cropped from a scan of the logo for a packet of origami papers.  I made the mosaic in Picnik, an online photo editing program.  I love Picnik--I have the "premium" package ($25 a year) so I can keep photos I like to use again in my history.  I doctored the colors on the kitty in Photoshop, then bumped the picture into Picnik.

We love Pokenmon in our household.  This is a header from a packet of origami paper that features the popular "pocket monsters" in a variety of designs.  Pikachu is my favorite.

This eye-catching girl in her kimono is another graphic from a packet of origami paper.  Not only is her kimono made with the prints featured in the assortment, she is styled like a kokeshi doll, the popular, collectible, small wooden dolls made by craftspeople in Northern Japan.

This sweet fawn was scanned from the lid to a Bento box that my daughter's best friend purchased at FIT, the Japanese "Dollar" store in Bellaire, below the I-10 in Houston. Deer are very popular kawaii subjects, in part because the deer is considered by Japanese who practice Shinto, a spiritual faith indigenous to Japan.

We'll end with a scan featuring Japan's most famous kitty, Sanrio's, "Hello Kitty," shown here sipping tea in honor of the biscuits in the box.  Although the biscuits are shaped like Hello Kitty and her family, she doesn't seem to mind.  And she looks as young as ever, even though last year she celebrated her 35th birthday!  What a kitty.

Photoshop Fun

While I am not the creator of the primary layer "Rainbow Fireflies Room," used in this composition, I wanted to use with a subject that it could enhance.  I carefully cut out this photo of my daughter in a purple gingham dress and reconstructed the soles of her cowboy boots (she was standing in grass).  I used the "Gaussian blur" filter to create a second layer over the cutout to give the figure depth, glow and to help ground it to the background.  My next task is to have a go at placing a shadow across the floor.

Alice in Wonderland Dress

My 16-year-old daughter is an anime fan, and loves Japanese street fashion.  She enjoys wearing the puffy sleeved, frilly-skirted dresses known as "Sweet Lolita."  Japanese fashion incorporates western clothing without much regard to original situational meanings, creating new and ever-evolving styles.

The "Sweet Lolita" girl wears these exquisitely made cotton frocks, replete with lace and darts, plackets and big bows, and adds knee socks or hosiery with specially designed Mary Jane-style shoes, and finishes the affair with a girly-girl parasol and hair bows.  This dress, made by "Baby the Stars Shine Bright" has blue gingham checks and a fanciful tea party design.

My daughter and her friends don their dresses for special outings such as picnics in the park, tea parties with finger sandwiches, and theater events.  I have never ever dressed so fabulously, not even in my BC (before children) days when I had money and a waistline!

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If you'd like to see how this photo looks as a "Mini Moo Card", scroll down and see "How Do You Moo?"