Weekly inspirations

I am watching National Geographic six-episode documentary about Africa. Everything about shown culture fascinates me.. it is so pure, bodies and emotions uncovered by shame we impose on ourselves in the west... so beautiful! 

Needless to say I am feeling tribal ;)

p.s. I don't usually give credits for using images found on a random blog, tumblr or some other place I don't have a connection with simply because I find it more than unnecessary. So, unless you are the person who owns the photograph, please, don't be upset about you ego not letting an issue like this one go ;)

"Ben! I have one word for you: PLASTIC!"

I not always have a grocery bag with me. In such a case I ask a cashier to fit everything in as few bags as possible (it's always no more than two) and to not double bag it. I get all kinds of puzzled looks (human nature is incredibly vast in it's beauty of expression), lost looks, and even comments like "she's crazy". Sometimes, a kind clueless soul warns me, that my shopping bags are going to be to heavy, if not doubled. And then I say: "You know what's heavy? The build up of plastic on the Earth." A response, as a rule, is the look, that's even more lost. There are places, like Whole Foods, where not only customers, but all the staff is aware more or less, but not in the area of Brooklyn, where I live... I keep hoping that one day I'll see understanding and approving smile from a sales person. This is why, I collected as many bags as I did, with the help of my food-shopping loving family, and made my first shopping bags, which I'm intending to take every time I go grocery shopping. 

It is so darn easy and rewarding to make a bag like this, that I am to share a pictorial process, in hopes that it can be handy for some, if not all :)

Fold a bag lengthwise, cut off the bottom and the handles (those parts can go to recycle bin for plastic at your local supermarket).

Cut the folded bag across into several pieces, approximately 1 inch wide.

Unfolded, each piece will have a circular seamless shape.

Here's a seemingly tricky (but it's not) part. Take two "rings" of plastic that you unfolded, and interlace them, like shown in the picture. You sort of wrap one circle around another, making a loop, through which you pull out the whole thing eventually. 

Here it's more visible.

Dozens of bags are made into yards and yards of plastic yarn, which is then rolled into a ball.

I hope you can crochet. If you can't, you're missing out on a rather pleasurable pastime making many beautiful things for yourself and your friends and family. 

Here's my grocery bag. I like how there is a blue and red stripe going around - it happened totally by accident, a nice little gift from my own effort ;) 

p.s. oh, and the rug is the one I made out of old t-shirts, i blogged about it earlier ;) It feels soooo nice to step on it in the morning, a sudden splash of color... boom! makes me happy!

Chunks of knit!

I can't say I am very much into latest fashion, at least not as much as I used to be. I do some research of the collections each season to stay on top, but my inspiration comes from the people on the street, from free-styled art forms of any kind, from the cultural documentaries I'm hooked on right now... But, they say it is going to be a big-chunky knits season (not the first one in the row). Here're creations by Johan Ku.. white, sculptured, just like the name of the collection "Emotional Sculpture". 

People I don't know, but am glad they exist

The internet space is so vast, it is impossible to even start imagining about how much of good and bad stuff is there. But there are two people who I really like to visit on the web, who can elevate your mood even higher, they're both shining, beaming with light women. One is sjwhidden

 and the other one is aauumm . I'm pretty happy I found these two lovely ladies ;)

Friends

I think everyone would agree, if I said, that friendship by itself is inspirational. I got to spend the whole last weekend with the people I love, going to Harriman Park for a two day hike, the weather was marvelous, we had so much fun! Total bliss, if you ask me :) And below is me with one of my friends, Leva at the beach. We went out to see the moon and the sun during fall equinox last week.