The new kick

Well. I'm hardly one to avoid new inspirations or ideas, am I? This weekend I have taken up Jewelry crafting! Here are my personal favorites from my collection of "newly made crafts". More to come, I assure you.

The New Victoria's Secret.

My senses have been heavily offended.

I've just returned from Tyson's Corner, where I was doing a project for my commercial design class. On the way to Urban Outfitters I was forced to pass the most atrocious monstrosity that is: the new Victoria's Secret.

Shiny, black, marble tiles shrouded the doorways to the store, which served as a gate where store personal guard each of three entrances, saying "I'm sorry. There's a five minute wait to get into the store." When I asked why they would do that, the clerk told me "It keeps it less crowded inside," as she quietly rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Yeah," I replied, "And turns off half of your business too." She nodded and looked down at her hands.

I can understand where this waiting thing is coming from - in the eyes of Victoria's marketers, it's a cool new twist to the mall experience; giving the store slight, female bouncers that turn away potential browsers and only admit the most serious customers. It's supposed to create a feeling of exclusivity that "my gosh, I just got into Vicky's!"

Instead it turns 70% of their potential customers away. Because I was unwilling to wait 5 minutes to go in, I just wanted to find out what I could from my 115 lbs, blonde bouncer - so I engaged her in conversation. During that conversation, 3 people tried to go in her entrance, but instead ended up walking away while shaking their heads in annoyance and disbelief when told there was a wait to get into a store at THE MALL.

Bad move, Victoria.

But even worse in my eyes was the attitude of the store. Mannequins in bondage and/or racy lingerie were encased in glass cages that lined the doorways to the store. Behind the massive, black store frontage was a glare of red and pink - obviously designed to bespeak arousal and sex, but to me slightly resembled the entry way to hell that I see in mythology - dark stone gates break open to the red fires (and I know that sounds overly dramatic, but it's true). As you peeked through the entryway and into the rooms of underwear and sex paraphernalia, waify mannequins clad in almost nothing were sprawled erotically on red, velvet, Victorian style couches. To be honest, all that was missing from the atmosphere of a whorehouse that it conjured up were the orgasmic cries of a prostitute.

And most of all, my friends, I was horrified to look into the store and see mothers with children - still in buggies, 5 year olds, pre-teenagers... I know that censorship is unconstitutional, but when did it become alright in our society to publicly flaunt sexuality in this way? I'm not a blatant feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have never in my life - N E V E R - seen the body of women so grossly and sexually objectified as I did this afternoon. Even beyond the moral issues that this store is ripe with, we, as women, should take offense at this store. I sincerely hope it gets torn down or forced to remake itself.

In conclusion: Yes, the branding is nice, and the design is in a word, superb. But is it worth it? NO.

Transformations of the most fun order

Katey Nicosia (of One Good Bumblebee (see link at right under "artists/crafters") had a link to this on her blog, and boy is it fun! Assuming you'd like to transform your own face, simply go to: http://www.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~morph/ armed with a straight-on photograph of yourself, upload it, and transform away!!

New Clothing Galore!

Tonight I bought some star clasps from the craft store, stole some (p)leather samples from school, and this is what I made!


I got this button-up suit coat at the thrift store (along with my shoes) today. It was WaaaaaaY too long for me, so I cut it off really short, stitched it deliberately shoddy, and voila! New article of trendy clothing!

This was the sky when I was at Seven Corners today. So pretty, I had to photograph it.

Yes, I know. You're all thinking "hooray. ANOTHER sky picture from Marianne, what is this, #200?? *exasperated sigh*"




Ooooooo, my new shoes!!!! I got them at the thrift store today - $4 ! ! !

Maki-Maki

Mafia Dolls from Portugal (one of my friends from Flickr) sent this Maki to me today! I'm smitten with its adorableness.

S O C U T E ! ! !

::dashes upstairs and gives her Maki yet another loving squeeze::

Eleanor. The rest of the image is on Flickr. But I like her face the best of all. 

My weekend of crafts.

I spent much of the last weekend making things. It was so productive and wonderful. Also, on Friday and Saturday night I got to go to a couple of events with my dad for his firm (because my mom was out of town). I got all dolled up for the one on Saturday night because it was black tie. **SO FUN**!

Here are the projects I completed this weekend:


I decorated this vintage, unfinished cigar box with paint and vintage wallpapers. Inside is a whole-mess-'a-beads that I bought at the fleamarket yesterday for $6. What a bargain, I totally ripped that lady off. ... HA! 

The top of that box. 

A sketchbook I took apart and decorated with vintage wallpaper. It turned out rather nicely, I have to say! 

A make-up case or travel bag. It's about 4" x 6" 

Marcus the bat 

This is what I spent my afternoon making. It fits soooo much better than the last skirt I made (which is posted on Flickr)... I TOTALLY HEART IT!!! 

Second view; closer up, more detail ^_^ 

My newest creation. Meet Muffin the 1/2-cat! She (he? it?) can also be viewed on my Flickr site and etsy store... This is the first toy I've had time to complete for a week or so! I've been tremendously busy. I wish I had more time. But I don't... Sigh! 

Quote of the (yester)day

(Garth starts a story about his day after teasing me about something silly)

Me: Stop talking to me. Can't you see I'm trying to sulk??

Garth: Stop sulking, can't you see I'm talking to you?

Sweet Surprise

Garth totally surprised me last night with a "welcome back to civilization!" party after my trip to Louisiana. I had no idea that anything was out of place; but suddenly I was in his apartment with people I hadn't expected to hang out with at all, and we were playing fun games and eating Macaroni and cheese (home-made by garth)He is great ... and so sneaky!

Thank you Garth :)

Playing "CLUE: Master Detective" at the Bible study sleepveru. SO FUN! 

Ashley takes a go. 

Liz waits her turn. nbsp;