I think this promo for the new book Mom Inc is supposed to inspire me but instead it sort of enrages me.
Why do you ask? Could very likely be sour grapes, as I’ve been two years trying to get my own business off the ground (with two kids and full time job) and sometimes it feels like I haven’t gotten very far. Or my fear of becoming a cliche of the start up business in this era of DIY and cutesy craftiness. Regardless, I certainly haven’t achieved this quirky vision of the new domesticity where we all have perfect houses, adorable shoes and gorgeous neon tape to ship our boxes with.
The perfection of it all feels a bit oppressive to me, something akin to the issues raised in Elisabeth Badinter’s book The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women. It feels like a throw back to a hyper-domestic vision of womanhood and motherhood, except now you need to be a successful business person too. Aspirational to the point of being detrimental. I think I’d like the trailer better if she was wearing sweatpants and there were some dirty dishes laying around.
This said, I haven’t read Mom, Inc and would likely find it very illuminating and helpful (or not). In fact it might be just what I need to change out of said sweatpants, do some dishes and get to work!
Funny how you hear about someone once and then all of a sudden they crop up everywhere. Such is the case of the British children’s book illustrator Brian Wildsmith.
I first came across him via Sarah from Banquet‘s Pinterest, and then this counting book appeared on one of my favorite new blogs Atelier Pour Enfants.
It’s no secret that I love animated gifs (see one of my first posts). From birds to celebrities these little Internet gems that people continue to make never cease to make me smile (except when they’re creepy and weird of course—as many things on the Internet tend to be). Below is one of my recent faves.
The New York Public Library has recently launched the most creative use of this old technology (gif making)—the Stereogranimator. A combination of the stereoscope and the animated gif. The results are totally amazing and really fun.
Browse the gallery, or you can create your own. Awesome job (as usual) NYPL collections digitization crew!
The Barbies seem to be on Vacation (headed to Hawaii for winter I think) and the dinosaurs have moved in — much to our delight.
Their constant presence in our living room has inspired some research into early depictions of dinosaurs (more on that later) and came across this unbelievable film “The Lost World” made in 1925.
Ada hasn’t had a hat all winter. Well to clarify, she has a hat, but not one she’s willing to wear. So, given the fact that there was a dump of snow this morning and more on the way I decided I’d better make something happen. Inspired by this pattern found in a Martha Steward magazine years ago, and a pile of grey fleece I’ve had sitting around for ages, I pulled this together!
To be honest, I’m quite pleased with myself. Yet to be determined as to whether or not the princess will concur.
I have always admired the work of Hannah Höch—one of the few women associated with the Dada movement and a pioneer of photomontage. As we’ve been thinking a lot about collage over here (for a new product that is proving very difficult to manufacture nicely and cheaply) Höch has been on my mind a lot.
Grotesque, 1963
I would love to get my hands on either of these two books. This one Picture Book should be quite easy (thanks Amazon). A collection of collages and poetry that has recently been translated into English.
The other, Album, is a personal scrapbook of sorts. From babies to botany to sports, Hoch clearly had a wide range of inspiration for her work from within fine art and pop culture. Right up my alley! Thanks Hannah.
There have been a lot of blogs and articles talking about the launch of Lego’s new product Lego Friends (otherwise known as Lego for girls). Not wanting to get my knickers in a knot until I had a chance to actually see what it was all about, I delayed judgement. Well, consider my knickers completely and nearly irreparably tangled: boobs, beauty salons and bakeries, all in shades of pink and purple. It just seems so necessary and totally depressing.
But then I also read this blog post in gizmodo and although the title of the author’s post is gets under my skin (here go the feminists complaining again!) I think he has a good point. That is that kids can do the same thing with with these objects of brutal gender stereotypes that they do with all the Harry Potter and Star Wars sets — throw out the instructions and build whatever they want. Once you get rid of the stupid doll (which is shockingly skinnier than any other lego character ever) that comes with it you can simply have some pretty pink, purple and aqua to mix in with your red, yellow and blue bricks.
Still lame. And far from this awesome ad from the 70s, but maybe not a complete deal breaker?
Plus, it totally does remind me of this hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch from years ago.
