#SecondHandSeptember Books

Oooooh! I love books!
The used book store -- yet another type of shop I avoid in order to save money.
So many good books, so little time!

Locally, I find the Little Free Library very handy.

The one I walk by when I go to the Mar Vista Farmer's Market

Individuals register and set up the boxes on their property with a "give one, take one" model.

Latest batch that I gave.

What I took.

I found this on their site:

Join Us for Give A Good Read Week September 16 – 22

As part of our 10th Anniversary Celebration, we’ve partnered with our friends at Goodreads for a global book-sharing event starting Monday! To participate, visit a Little Free Library book-sharing box, share your latest good read, then snap a photo and post it social with #LFL10 and #GiveAGoodRead. Learn more about Give A Good Read Week.

My latest good read:

Here's a MAP LINK to find a Little Free Library near you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Repair and Design Futures at the RISD Museum

Repair and Design Futures at the RISD Museum [ended 6/30/19] was a great show about mending.

A quilt display in Cafe Pearl

Repair is the creative destruction of brokenness.
—Elizabeth V. Spelman, Repair: The Impulse to Restore in a Fragile World

Repair, a humble act born of necessity, expresses resistance to the unmaking of our world and the environment. This exhibition and programming series, Repair and Design Futures, investigates mending as material intervention, metaphor, and call to action. Spanning the globe and more than three centuries, these objects reveal darns, patches, and stabilized areas that act as springboards to considering socially engaged design thinking today. Repair invites renewed forms of social exchange and offers alternative, holistic ways of facing environmental and social breakdown.

On display in this multiuse gallery space are costume and textile objects from the collections of the RISD Museum and Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. In Café Pearl (at the Benefit Street entrance) and the Donghia Costume and Textile Gallery and Study Center (sixth floor), related exhibitions investigate additional approaches to repair. Through this informal, expansive format, we hope to encourage engagement across a broad spectrum of perspectives.

Kate Irvin
Curator, Costume and Textiles Department
RISD Museum
[all text in brown from RISD Museum website or exhibition checklist]

The exhibition was divided into several sections. There were also displays of relevant books, some of which I've listed at the bottom.

Wounds, Sutures, and Scars
We mend. We women turn things inside out and set things right.
—Louise Erdrich, Four Souls
The visceral presence of flesh in objects crafted of animal hide is amplified here by the visible sutures
that suggest a tending to and eventual healing of wounds endured. This material’s spiritual resonance
prompts questions of how the wound, crack, or fissure might provide an invitation to respond not only on a personal level but also within civic and collective arenas.

Repair as Value Added
Repairs that are not only unconcealed but celebrated serve as reminders of the rich life an object has
led, adding meaning, calling attention to its stories, and enabling a new path forward. Weathered
garments with evident and various repairs encourage us to appreciate the worn and imperfect as entry
points to understanding objects as material and practice, and to identifying holes (evident in patch
repairs) as important signs of history, time, emotional investment.

Ghanaian Man’s Robe (Fugu), mid 1900s Indigo-dyed cotton plain weave, patched
Museum purchase: Museum Works of Art Fund, by exchange 2017.5.2 

Textbook Repair
Well into the 20th century, mending and sewing skills were part of women’s education. Neatness and
precision were considered key indicators of skill and a girl’s eventual management of her household.
However, despite meticulous textbook instruction and training, many historical repairs combine
systematic skill with improvisation and creativity.

Broken-World Thinking
Broken-world thinking, as conceived by scholar Steven J. Jackson, presents breakage as potentially
generative and repair as a space for creative solutions to ruptures in the fabric of society. These pieces
speak to repair as a way of making something—perhaps even a broken world—functional again. These repairs acknowledge use, abuse, accident, and error. They insist on not forgetting the thing or its history.

Assemblage
These pieces reflect the value of assemblage in communicating and sharing mutual respect and
perspectives. Notions of cultural purity and ownership have no traction here. These items instead
recognize the emotional labor of dialogue and repairing relationships by reaching across imposed and/or imagined boundaries.

Patchwork
Patchworked items manifest repair by promoting collaboration. They celebrate the dialogue of the old with the new and illustrate the ways anyone can intervene and give dysfunctional material new life. The coming together involved in the practice of patchwork quilting has traditionally provided communities with moorings of exchange, communication, and shared traditions. Repair, in this case, is a way to reconnect fabric and people and engage with cultural and material history.

Additional reading:

• PDF checklist of exhibition
• Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More by Katrina Rodabaugh
• My Life with Things: The Consumer Diaries by Elizabeth Chin
• Fray: Art and Textile Politics by Julia Bryan-Wilson
• The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine by Rozsika Parker
• The Geometry of Hand-Sewing: A Romance in Stitches and Embroidery from Alabama Chanin and The School of Making by Natalie Chanin

Linking with

Shelbee's Spread the Kindness

Catherine's #shareallLinkup

The Fashion Rainbow Book!

Exciting news -- I made a book with the 52 Fashion Rainbow blogger portraits!

cover

There is a 2 page spread for each of the 52.
Here's is mine:

It is available on Blurb in various formats at this link (yes, I get a commission).
It's an 8 x 5" size, either paper or hardback.
PLUS, Blurb is having a 50% off sale through 11/29 -- use the code BEST50 [not true, alas].
The ebook format didn't seem to upload, so if you have an interest, let me know and I'll wrestle with it.

Speaking of sales, Society6 is having a 20% off with international free shipping (customs duty still applies) through 11/28. I've been working up some customized items as requests come in. Since I'm not teaching on Saturday, I've got more free time than usual, so leave a comment on any post if you want your mug on a mug, notebook, or whatever. This link to Jodie's card or the 52 blogger print will give you a good idea of the various items available. (I get a commission from Society6 sales too).

52 Pick-me-up: Salmon / Self-Worth / Faith

••• 

This is Salmon week on 52 Pick-me-up. Yeah!
I don't wear much in the salmon range.
Instead, I'll share photos of the "Salmon" book, that I have displayed in our kitchen.

Ewww. Looks like our kitchen needs a patch and paint job. Nice earthquake crack, right?
I also discovered that moths were nesting in the book.
Damn those moths. I have to keep all my grains and flours in the freezer because of them. They are The Enemy!

Here are some close-ups of the book, which I haven't looked at since I hung it in the plexi frame 15 years ago.
It's pretty cool!

The book was decommissioned from the Santa Barbara Public Library, so I imagine that I bought it in a thrift store there. I've had it for a long time -- since the 80s, I think. I totally forgot that it was a WPA publication from 1940. I also forgot about the blue marker embellishments created by "Lisa".
For my background, I chose my orange-faded-to-salmon Art Shorts, which are now on Poshmark. Yes, I'm selling all my paint-stained studio garments that no longer fit. SOMEBODY might want them!

Salmon / Self-Worth / Faith -- link and tell!

Chakra Wisdom Oracle with Tori Hartman

GIFTED/  

Last Friday I had the opportunity to meet with author Tori Hartman to hear about her 
Chakra Wisdom Oracle Cards and Toolkit. 

gifts from Tori 

It was a really interesting session. There were four of us around a glass table on her back patio. Tori told us her story, we told ours, and then we did a couple of fun exercises involving our intuition. Tori suggested that I begin by working with the Heart Chakra/ Green exercises in her Toolkit book. When I got home, I was inspired to clear off my bedside shelf and make myself a green zone:

Finally a use for the jumbo Pantone postcards that I bought a couple of years ago!

Those of you that play my 52 Pick-me-up challenge -- get ready for a colorful year! 
The new prompts will be published by July 5.

Get a taste of what the Oracle cards say here.

From her website:
Thursday June 11, 2015 - Tori appears at Barnes & Noble at The Grove

Do you live in Los Angeles or the surrounding areas?

If you do…we have fantastic news! Tori Hartman will be making her first ever appearance at the famous Barnes & Noble location at The Grove in LA.

Not only will she be signing copies of her card deck and meeting everyone, she’ll also be doing a workshop where you’ll get a mini-reading with the cards and intuitively experience her technique.

As the bestselling author of the Chakra Wisdom Oracle card deck, Tori’s events are always fun-filled with activities and exercises to empower you to tap into your intuition in ways you’ve never done before!

Through teaching her simple techniques, she has helped thousands of people to start businesses, do their Masters Degree, live a healthier lifestyle, write books, and even find the love of their life.

So head over to Barnes & Noble on June 11 at 7pm so that you don’t miss out on this FREE intuitive experience!

Date: Thursday June 11, 2015
Time:  7:00pm
Location: 189 The Grove Drive Suite K 30, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Cost: FREE

For more information, you can also visit Barnes & Noble's event page HERE

Full disclosure: I was gifted a set of the Chakra Wisdom Oracle Cards and Toolkit. No affiliate links are in this post.

52 Pick-me-up: Fresh Fruits

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ GIFTED/

Feeling fruity?
I'm wearing the forbidden one -- the apple!

Details:

Freedy Johnston band tee for that farmstead feel

Scarf, socks, skirt:

My lap at lunchtime, setup for a #tinyplanet photo
Note "Pop of Pink" socks for linking with Create 28 Lovely Spring Looks

Fruits does not only refer to food.
There is also FRUiTS, a 90's Japanese Harajuku streetstyle magazine created by Shoichi Aoki.
FRUiTS the magazine spawned a couple of books, I have both:

In my Google perambulations, I discovered there is a current FRUiTS Facebook Page.
YES! My people!

I've given you a wide range of choices for your 52 Pick-me-up contribution this week.
Go wild!
Then link and tell!

I'll be linking with Patti's Visible Monday later today.

SpyGirl Watches: "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies"

CREATED/ LINKS/

Exactly five years ago I finally went to the doctor about a lump in my right breast that had been growing for about a year. Yes I was in deep denial.

It was breast cancer -- stage IIIc, to be exact.
I had a mastectomy, chemo, and radiation.
I'm sharing this fact so that maybe you won't procrastinate as badly as I did.
[If you want to read about my cancer saga, it's over on a Caring Bridge blog here].
I'm fully recovered, by the way. Team Bray for the win!

There has been much more open discussion of cancer of late. I think that's beneficial to all that get touched by this disease, whether it's as the one with the malady or as that person's caretaker and/or loved one. Wendy Brandes wrote an excellent post here regarding Angela Jolie's cancer decisions, I highly suggest reading it.

PBS is airing a three part documentary based on the book by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
I enjoyed the book very much and I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary.
There was a great review of it in the Sunday LA Times here.

"Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies" will be airing 9pm Monday 3/30 - Wednesday 4/1 (six hours over three nights). Check your local listing.

"The Art of Having It All" Book Give-Away [ends 4/1/15]

PRESS SAMPLE/ 

Giveaway extended until 4-1-15.

It's Maricel and Selah's Thoughtful Third Thursday today.

The theme this month? "March On"

Back in January, I was asked if I'd like to review "The Art of Having It All" by Christy Whitman. 

Here, I have the book placed on my abundance of sewing repairs.

"Sure," I said, "I'll read it and then do a giveaway." Well, lo and behold, I was sent TWO copies. So now I'm thinking, why don't I get a study partner and we can check in with each other and see where this book takes us.

Some pithy quotes from Christy [lifted from the press release] to entice you:

“Having it all simply means having access to all of yourself, in any moment you choose it, and in every aspect of life that is important to you.”

“Nothing can happen until you start paying attention to you, and this means listening to your emotions rather than trying to resist, suppress, ignore or deny them.”

“Give yourself permission to have. Give yourself permission to be.
Give yourself permission to need. Give yourself permission to let go.”

“There is a deep place within your system where there is complete alignment and infinite capacity.”

Sound like something you'd like to read?

Simply enter your email into the Rafflecopter below. That's all I ask!
NOTE: it's a two step process. Log into giveaway via Facebook or your email. THEN add your email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The technical details on the book:

The Art of Having It All – A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance
Christy Whitman
List $14.95
Trade soft cover, 136 pages
ISBN-1- 978-0-9885855-0-8
Published by TV Guestpert Publishing

For more information about Christy, visit www.TheArtofHavingItAll.com or www.ChristyWhitman.com

I was compensated with two copies of the book, one to give away. 
I'll be paying the postage to send the winner their copy.

I've quoted extensively from the press release.

Island Fever on Top, Business Chic on Bottom

CREATED/ PURCHASED/ PRESS SAMPLE*/ LINKS/

And a book in my hands!

*sunglasses frames c/o *DITTO

Yes, it's T3 (Thoughtful Third Thursday) time. I know, it's Saturday today. Call it T4: Tardy Thoughtful Third Thursday.

What came first, the outfit or the reading material? OK, I'll confess, I put together the outfit first. A weird mix of neutrals, if you remove the Hawaiian shirt. I found the deep purple tights in the bottom of my drawer which I thought went well with the red-cast navy in the shirt. I became very fond of the color over the course of the day. Alas, the elastic was fried, so it was their swan song. The shell necklaces are Hawaiian luau souvenirs from a fabulous trip to the Big Island in 2005.

"What's the book?" you ask?

Unsuitable for Ladies, by Jane Robinson
That's Osa Johnson on the cover in 1921. Isn't she the bee's knees?

The quote:
"This is not a proper travel book... it is an account of my best horror journeys, chosen from a wide range, recollected with tenderness now that they are past. All amateur travellers have experienced horror journeys, long or short, sooner or later, one way or another. As a student of disaster, I note that we react alike to our tribulations: frayed and bitter at the time, proud afterwards. Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival. ...We're not heroic like the great travellers but all the same we amateurs are a pretty tough breed. No matter how horrendous the last journey we never give up hope for the next one, God knows why." Martha Gelhorn, Travels with Myself and Another

It was a complicated process, but I'll just say this quote found me. Both this book and Martha's have been added to my mobile road trip library. I depart next Thursday! Keep current with the trip here. Pitch in some financial aid here -- every dollar much appreciated!

Linking up with T3 today,
and Patti's Visible Monday tomorrow.

A Literary Linkup with Ann-Margret and Elvis

PURCHASED/ PURLOINED/ LINKS/

My new blogging friends Maricel of My Closet Catalogue and Selah of A Bibliophile's Style have started a fun link-up inspired by their love of books and reading, called Thoughtful Third Thursday.

Here are their directions: Every third Thursday of the month, create a post where you state what you’re currently reading (novel, non-fiction, short story, magazine, blog, manga, etc.), include a quote and/or a synopsis, and an outfit that you feel corresponds to your chosen quote.

I'm game -- I love to read, and I love a quirky outfit challenge.

My non-fiction autobiographical book:  
My Story, by Ann-Margret 

My quote:
"I regarded Elvis's presence as an extra bonus. I was pleased to know he was nearby, and I hoped we could connect somehow." p. 255

My look:

Elvis paperweight from the official Graceland souvenir shop, 1995
Elvis jacket is a Lee barn jacket customized with an Elvis tapestry by some genius designer in the 80s, purchased in a cool shop [RIP] in Pasadena on Colorado, east of Lake.
Got the Ann-Margret book from the "freebie" shelf at the Mar Vista branch of LA Public Library.

Linking up with Thoughtful Third Thursday (duh)
and Patti's Visible Monday