The stupidest tea party I've ever been to, the mish-mash that is my brain, and plans

Last week was my youngest daughter's birthday and we had an Alice in Wonderland Tea party for her. Here are some pictures. It was crafting insanity for us for over a week! We made, all kinds of things inspired by the book Everything Alice. My oldest daughter was supposed to be a white rose that was painted red. And her boyfriend was a card with a paint brush.

Naturally the birthday girl was Alice & her boyfriend (who shares her birthday) was a Madd Hatter.

Riley was her own new character the Cheshire Queen!
And we played croquet on the front lawn.

Two things that have recently inspired my crafting plans are Project Runway and the pianist Vasily Primakov. How do two such unrelated things inspire my crafting plans well this is how.

Project Runway had a challenge where the designers had to dress a rock band naturally they made quite a few pairs of jeans. This made me realize I can easily do that! I love making pants.

AND

I got to see the New West Symphony because my friend Michael Williams was a guest conductor and composer (he was fabulous of course). My inspiration though came from guest pianist Vasily Primakov who wore a very cool tux with pants that looked very modern.

I'm going to make my handsome husband (Robert) a pair of slacks for Christmas! He never ever wears slacks. The only time he wore a suit was for his mother's funeral...yeah, kinda bad isn't it? He couldn't even wear a the slacks with his jacket for our wedding...he wore jeans. I don't want to wait for someone to die before he wears slacks again. So here is the plan...I'm going buy some beautiful slack fabric and make his pants to fit exactly like his jeans. It may sound stupid but well I know if they fit like his jeans there's a chance he will wear them.

Here is his picture so you know he is really handsome...he is also a big goofy man! I chose this picture from Pirate faire cause I think it's funny how serious he looks! Ha!

The other idea I got is that I want to make Robert a sweater out of this dark blue handspun I made for him a long time ago and never knitted up. I've found 2 of the skeins I know there are plenty more. Last year I bought him a cashmere sweater which he wore every single day from December 25 till April...I am NOT kidding...I told you he is a goof ball.

Ok! Thats all for now folks! I'm busily preparing for my guild's harvest sale! Hopefully I'll sell something to make money to buy more fiber & fabric! Wish me luck!

The Help

I finally went to see The Help last night. It was a really entertaining movie, good engaging story, well acted and all that. And it's generally agreed that the people who went through the civil rights movement of the 1960's did many great and brave things to improve the lives of everyone.

I can't help but bringing my thoughts back to the struggles we are going through NOW in 2011. More and more people are loosing jobs every day, the actual unemployment rate is much higher than the official numbers say, in my county alone it's 10% officially, in reality if you count everyone who is underemployed, has given up, or has fallen out of the system it would be more like 20%. That means 1 in every 5! Teachers & firemen in Wisconsin -in fact all over the country are loosing the rights to collectively bargain for their benefits and salaries that were gained by the sacrifices of brave union workers in the early part of the 20th century. I'd like to see another movie about that, how people gained the right to a 40 hour work week & ended child labor. These days people have made student loans for unbelievable amounts of money only so that they could get jobs that don't exist -I speak from personal experience on this one, I have 2 children with beautiful college educations, massive loans, and no jobs. One even attended an Ivy League school, a sure guaranty of a job right? Wrong. What can he do? Go to more school, hopefully get a job in one of the only professions in this country where people actually work, the law.

What is really going on here? The struggle has become colorless, the struggle has become one of the wealthy against everyone else. The tea party is trying to fool everyone, they don't represent the common man who they say will loose from high taxes, they represent the wealthy. The corporations and the rich will continue to get unfair tax cuts. They have paid less and less taxes every year since the Reagan administration and while the poor and the middle classes have gone into debt and work more and more jobs (which no longer exist) just to make ends meet. Just to pay their children's medical bills & educations- which by the way are the only debts that cannot be wiped away by bankruptcy...it's true, if you are bankrupt you still have to pay those enormous medical bills and unrealistic student loans (just so you know, it costs $40,000 a year to go to both Art Center & Columbia University, ask me how I know). And bankruptcy has become nearly impossible, for the middle class to file any more...another safety net removed by the Bush administration. That's right if your child gets cancer and you have thousands of dollars in medical bills you might as well just give away your house and live on the street. I'm sorry to say the bill collectors will probably still find you sitting on your box in the parking lot while you panhandle.

What is going on here?

Pardon me while I shout....THE HELP NEEDS A JOB!!!!

We need to be focusing on creating jobs, not cutting more through budget cuts. We need to be taxing and regulating those who can afford it best, the wealthy & the corporations. I would like to see Obama give a real helping hand to the American people not just the banks. I would like to see congress step up and do the same. I would like to see those who are supposed to work for the people really do their jobs and be brave.

And I'm going to suggest this to people who really want to learn some interesting things from a news network that doesn't benefit from any corporate money and was the original public radio. It's been around since the 1940's, it's called Pacifica, in my area I listen to 90.7 KPFK but you can listen all over the world streaming live online...

Pacifica.org - Home