Thinking about Pink

Lately, I've started seeing red...about pink. I am talking about all of the products that get stamped with a pink ribbon or manufactured of pink plastic or printed in pink ink, in the name of breast cancer research.


The campaign began in good faith in the early 1990's when the fashion of wearing ribbon loops took hold with the popularity of the red AIDS awareness ribbon. (Actually, it can be traced even further back to the yellow ribbons that signified the Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979. And, those were inspired by the Tony Orlando and Dawn song, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree.")

About the same time, Susan G. Komen for the Cure was using pink as their signature color and things began to take off from there. Self Magazine editor Alexandra Penney teamed up with Evelyn Lauder, senior vice-president of Estee Lauder cosmetics, to start a campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer using the pink ribbon loop and the symbol was widely adopted.

However, sometime in the past decade, the annual "Hunt for Pink October" has reached ridiculous heights. I have noticed this trend for the past several years and have found it increasingly distasteful. I have hesitated to speak up for fear of offending those who are out there in the trenches, raising money for medical research. But I have finally decided that those are very people who should be offended - by these things that trivialize their efforts.

http://www.officemax.com/

For instance, Office Max has introduced this special stapler. See the pink trim and the little pink ribbon? Don't you  feel all warm and fuzzy because the folks at Office Max are such generous corporate citizens? It can't be that they want to sell more staplers.

http://www.sephora.com/

How would you like a pink eyelash curler? It's from Sephora. By the way, a search of their site shows lots of pink. You can also get a Clarisonic skincare brush, a "pop up" hairbrush, and a special edition of Ole Henriksen Truth Serum Collagen Booster.

Yes, I realize that most of these companies say that they will give a donation to breast cancer research with each purchase. For instance, for every $16 pink eyelash curler that they sell, Sephora will donate $1 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I suppose if you were already in the market for an eyelash curler and really liked the $16 one, then this is a nice way to help out. Or you could just give The Breast Cancer Research Foundation $16 and keep your old eyelash curler. Even better, Sephora could just make a corporate donation that is not dependent on any sales.

A Google search of "pink breast cancer awareness products" brings up products that surprised me, and I thought I've been paying attention.

http://boardcoverz.com/

Pink snowboard cover, anyone? In the interest of good taste, I am not posting the picture of the pink sex toys that are for sale. But you can do your own search and find them.

Pink isn't limited to the retail market; the companies are also going after professionals. 

http://www.medline.com/

Will you feel better if your doctor wears pink (non-latex) gloves while conducting your examination? I also saw a pink electric toothbrush for dentists to give to their patients.

Or what about this?

http://www.watchesandflasks.com/

A pink ribbon flask? Or even better....

http://www.smith-wesson.com/

Yep. It's a pink Smith and Wesson pistol.

I hope you will join me in boycotting the products that are less about breast cancer awareness and more about sly marketing. If you need some help determining what those are, I recommend this site:

According to their website, Think Before You Pink.org launched in 2002 in response to the growing concern about the number of pink ribbon products on the market. The campaign calls for more transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising, and encourages consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions."

I recommend that you take a look at their site to help you make better decisions about which products really do help the cause.

In the meantime, perhaps you can think green instead of pink and make a donation directly to your favorite charity. If you need some suggestions, click one of the links below:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure
American Cancer Society
Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Thank you for reading.

Susan

I'm back - again.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will be an occasional visitor to my own blog. I have really good intentions to post often, but I just don't think it's going to happen. Of course, that means even-less-than-occasional visitors but I just can't help it. I am sorry. However, I am no longer going to start each post with an apology for not posting in such a long time.

This past week has been spent in a flurry of crafting because...(drum roll)...it's Farmers' Market time again! My cute neighbor and her good friend have a home-based craft business called "sweet on main" and they sell my things on commission. Cristina and Anna are truly amazing young women. Not only do they make darling things, but they are also mothers to adorable children, wives to terrific men, take time to live responsibly, volunteer and to be good friends to many. I am inspired by them to accomplish more.

So...here are the things I made for them to take today:

I didn't get a chance to do any individual photos or to even make this one very good. I took the picture at about 9:00 last night, when I finished the last of the things. I needed to get them to Cristina so that she could take them to the market this morning. But, there are hairclips, barrettes and headbands and some zippered bags. I hadn't done anything like this in far too long and it took a surprisingly long time to find my creativity.

My lack of inspiration - and lack of preparation - led to this.

Somewhere in all of this chaos is my craft room. So, now you know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my weekend. I have several other projects that need to be finished soon and I need to clear some space.

This time, if you don't hear from me in week or so, perhaps you should worry. I may have gotten lost in the mess. If I achieve my goal of cleaning and organizing, I will post a photo proving it!

Susan

P.S. I have been making birds every day during my hiatus. However, my photography of them has been severely neglected so I don't have proof. But, I really have been doing it - I promise!

Whew! July birds are put to bed!

So...here is the remainder of the birds for the month of July. Yes, I know that it's September 10. Don't judge. Life keeps getting in the way of photographing and posting the pictures.

I am making them each day, though. I did go through a "Seriously? Why did I start this? And why did I tell everyone that I did?" phase. But, I have found my enthusiasm again. I think that anything you set out to do on a daily basis can become a chore without some effort. I guess that's one of the lessons to be learned out of this project.

1. july 17, 2. july 18, 3. july 19, 4. july 20, 5. july 21, 6. july 22, 7. july 23, 8. july 24, 9. july 25, 10. july 26, 11. july 27, 12. july 28, 13. july 29, 14. july 30, 15. july 31

As always, you can click on the date to read my description of a particular bird. The link takes you to my Flickr account. The description is written on the day that I made the bird and tells why I made that one.

So, I have put July's birds in a small paper tote bag to save for Phase II of the project. And now I'm off to process the pictures for August!

Susan

I'm still here!

I think I found out the surefire way to make myself slow down enough to update my blog. I broke my toe on Friday night when I accidentally kicked a leg of the couch. (My husband wants me to say that I have "toe-lio." I told him that was silly.) I've spent a good bit of time moving from bed to couch with my foot elevated, watching some very bad television. But, today the Food Network has a "Chopped" marathon on - I love that show!

(I really regret putting off that pedicure.)

I have continued my "Daily Bird" project though and managed to limp around to take pictures of the July birds yesterday. So, here are the first sixteen. (You can click on the date below to get the full description of each bird.) I'll post the remainder of July tomorrow.

1. july 1, 2. july 2, 3. july 3, 4. july 4, 5. july 5, 6. july 6, 7. july 7, 8. july 8, 9. july 9, 10. july 10, 11. july 11, 12. july 12, 13. july 13, 14. july 14, 15. july 15, 16. july 16

I also completed the month of August but haven't photographed them yet. Since I am still hobbled, I'm sure I will get to it soon. So, watch this space for a flock of birds coming soon!

Susan

Project Runway - Let's hear it for the old guy!

The new season of Project Runway premiered last night. I love this show. Heidi, Tim, Michael and Nina were all back, with special guest judge Christina Ricci. (I didn't find a picture of Christina.  You can google her. The other photos are from the Lifetime TV Project Runway page.)

Heidi Klum - Host and judge

Tim Gunn - Mentor



Nina Garcia - Judge



Michael Kors - Judge

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The first bit of the episode showed Heidi and the others interviewing the twenty semi-finalists. This seemed redundant to me since I had watched the hour-long casting special just before the regular episode. That one had previous PR winners Seth-Aaron Henderson and Leanne Marshall and runner-up Mondo Guerra evaluating contestants and we saw the same contestants and the same outfits they brought to show. Curiously, they never identified Leanne or Mondo, although Seth-Aaron got some face time on camera.

So the first thing that happened was that Heidi "auf-ed" four people immediately. Surprisingly, they kept the former Miss Trinidad who admitted that she only started to learn to sew last year. Well, she is beautiful so I guess that counts for something. But, I thought this year's cast was pretty bland. No really strange ones like that chick who spit on her fabric because she liked to make herself part of it. Or Ping, who just sort of draped fabric on her models. Or the guy last year who designed an outfit that was like an egg for the maternity wear challenge. It represented "fertility" and he went home that day.

The always-dapper Tim Gunn leads the just-rolled-out-of-bed designers on Project Runway for a 5 a.m. walk to the Parsons School.

The first challenge had Tim Gunn waking them all up at about 5 a.m. They had to wear their pajamas, or whatever substituted for pajamas, and to bring one bedsheet. Yep, they had to make their first runway look from the clothes on their back and their sheet. Actually, most of them were decent which made for some of the episode's blandness.

Rafael Cox - "Auf-ed" on Episode One

Several were spectacularly bad and Rafael went home because he didn't seem to know that his outfit was bad. That doesn't seem to deter many very popular designers who seem to enjoy being really, really bad at their art. Or craft. Or whatever it is. But, I'm glad to know that Project Runway does not encourage that sort of behavior.

This week's winner, Bert Keeter, aka "The Old Guy"

The best part of the episode came when Bert won it. Bert is a 57 year-old recovering alcoholic that all those sassy kids had ignored. Of course, he had been a designer with Oleg Cassini and Halston before his personal downturn so you know he has the chops. Still, it was nice to see even if Michael Kors hated his styling.

Bert has immunity so he won't go home next week. Hopefully, I will find myself feeling a little more interested in the rest of the crew soon. If not, I may have to say "auf weidersehen" to this season's PR. But, I'll always love Tim.

One down...eleven to go!

I have been quietly working on my bird project each day and have finally caught up on the photography. Taking the pictures is proving to be the hardest part of the whole thing. I can't get enough natural light and the flash makes the colors look funny. I took the last batch outside, but now it is either too rainy or too hot.

Without further ado - I present the June collection of birds...

A June-ful of birds. Don't they look cute all lined up on their calendar square?

For those who might want more details, here is the photo mosaic with each bird's individual portraits. If you click on the date at the bottom of the photo mosaic, it should take you to the Flickr page where you can read my comments for that particular one.

june 17, june 18, june 19, june 20, june 21, june 22, june 23, june 24, june 25, june 26, june 27, june 28, june 29, june 30

I'm still making birds each day so I'll update July soon!

(P)Interested?

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? (By the way - that's a link that you can click and see Pinterest for yourself.) It's a very cool site - sort of like your own bulletin board on the Internet. I don't know about you, but my bookmarks folder is filled with sites and things that I want to remember. The only problem is that there are so many of them, I have no idea what they are anymore.

For instance, I love, love, LOVE this:

I found it when I was blog-surfing one day (thank you, Dottie Angel.) I could bookmark it and add it to the list that is already way too long. But, I won't know be able to remember what that bookmark is for. Trust me on this. I've tried.



(Here's another thing I pinned. Cool, huh? Wanna come wrap fabric around styrofoam balls with me? This idea came from aprettylifeinthesuburbs.blogspot.com.)

Pinterest solves that problem. It uses photos so you can actually remember what you liked. And, they automatically link back to the original source, giving both credit to the person who deserves it and letting you find it again. You decide how to organize your photos by setting up and naming your "bulletin boards" yourself. And, it's easy to do. You get a little widget that says "Pin This" to add to your toolbar. When you see something you like, you click that widget and it lets you pick the picture you want, add any comments and then put it on the board you want. It's easier than I'm making it sound. Really. I promise.

If you want to, you can click here and see my pins: My Pinterest pins. Here's another preview:

See - you can pin things just because you think they are beautiful. Like Anne Hathaway in this stunning dress. Don't you love her tiara? (This image came from justjared.com, although I am a little ashamed to admit it. I don't read that site; just came across the photo somewhere else.)

But, there is one more fun part. It's sort of like "show and tell." You can see other people's boards and comment on their loves or even re-pin them to your board. You can easily post your pins on Facebook so that other people can see them. Oooh - maybe birthday or Christmas hints? I wonder if the people at Pinterest have thought of that?

In case anyone is interested, I need this flowered tape in my life. Unfortunately, it came from etsy.com and it says it isn't available anymore. Maybe someone can find something similar?

If you give it a try, let me know and I'll follow you. And, maybe you'll follow me? And, while you are in the mood to tag along with me, perhaps you'll follow this blog as well. Okay, finished with the shameless bit of self-promotion!

Have fun pinning!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to the United States! I love the Fourth of July - cookouts, fireworks, family. But, I love it for another reason. The Fourth of July is also my parents' wedding anniversary.

In 1953, my father was a reporter covering the Alabama legislature for the United Press. As he explains,

"I had checked that the legislature would be in recess the week after the Fourth of July and told Albert Boutwell, who was Alabama's Lieutenant Governor and Senate President, that I wanted to go on our honeymoon while the legislature was in recess. But then, surprising both of us, somebody called for a vote to recess the week before the 4th and be in session afterward."

"That's when Albert jumped up and said, 'Paul Wills is covering the legislature for the UP and plans to get married on the Fourth and they will be on their honeymoon the week after. Her mother won't let her go on their honeymoon before they are married so we have to recess the week after.' So, the recess and the honeymoon came the week after the Fourth."

Among my earliest memories of growing up in Tallahassee is watching the Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Ella. Every year, Mama and Daddy celebrated their anniversary with my brother and me, with a hot dog bought from a sidewalk vendor as their dinner. I thought it was perfect - and I think they did, too.

We celebrated my folks' 55th anniversary in Blake Hospital where my mother was being treated for leukemia. My brother and nephew were in town so we took pineapple upside-down cake and homemade ice cream to a hospital family room and had a party there. While it wasn't as perfect as other years, it was lots of fun. My mother had a special talent of making everything fun.

That was the last anniversary we all celebrated together. My mother passed away a few months later. This year, my husband, my father and my godfather (who was also their best man) will have a cookout and enjoy celebrating our country's 235th anniversary. But mostly, we will remember the even more special anniversary of Paul and Martee Wills, with thanks Lieutenant Governor Albert Boutwell.

How did this happen?

How did we go from this:

to this:

so quickly?

Somehow my son, Andrew, as turned into an adult. My calendar shows that it has been 21 years but honestly, it hasn't felt like much more than 21 weeks.

They have been among the most wonderful years of my life - although I have to admit that those years have also included some of the most frustrating moments of my life. Those few moments have been completely worth it. Andrew is a kind, smart, funny, polite, responsible young man.

I'm proud of you, son.

Love,
Mom

In a Pickle

"So few people eat okra (more radishes are grown in this country) that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods." - Mississippi native and author Julia Reed

Now, that's an unpopular vegetable. Okra really needs a good public relations firm to give it an image makeover. Most people cook it until it has the texture of mucus. This is the wrong way to cook it. My father has always grown okra in his vegetable garden and it tends to be very prolific. So, we have eaten it all sorts of ways. It's really quite delicious when very small pods are lightly steamed, just until they are tender. You can add some hollandaise sauce if you want to be fancy, but just a little butter is good, too. And, fried okra is food fit for the gods.

But, even most okra-haters like pickled okra. It stays crisp and green and has a little bite from hot peppers. My mother made jars of okra pickles every year and my father has suggested that I try to make some with his current crop. I've always resisted before, but I decided that this was the Year of Pickled Okra.

I bought the jars and other pickling supplies and wished I had paid attention when my mother was making her okra pickles. I went on a hunt for dill seed - found at Richard's Foodporium - and a hunt for recipes and method. The methods varied widely from no processing after adding the vinegar to boiling in a water bath for two hours. I decided to go with five minutes. My husband grew the little peppers.

(Please forgive the photography; I took this in my kitchen where the lighting wasn't very good.)

Making pickles makes for a messy kitchen, by the way.

But, after much boiling of things, I ended up with this:

They are really quite beautiful. The red peppers contrast nicely with the green okra pods.

Best of all, the little circle in the middle of the lids popped down with a very satisfying "ping." That means that the jar sealed. I am so proud of my domesticity.

I have to wait about two weeks for the vinegar and various seasonings to do their thing and then we will have an okra pickle tasting. I'll keep you posted...





The "Daily Bird" project has hatched!

So far, so good. As I said in my first post, I am planning to make a fabric bird daily for a year. Every.Single.Day. Three hundred and sixty-five birds. As of June 17, I have not missed a day. (Well, to be honest, I haven't made today's yet because I've been figuring out how to make a Flickr mosaic. But I will. I promise!)

In case you missed it in the parenthetical phrase above, I have also learned how to make one of those cool photo mosaics you see all over blogland! It was much easier than I thought it would be, particularly if you use the secret weapon found at BigHugeLabs.com. Go here if you want to try it.

So, without further ado...my photo mosaic of my daily birds....

1. june 1, 2. june 2, 3. june 3, 4. june 4, 5. june 5, 6. june 6, 7. june 7, 8. june 8, 9. june 9, 10. june 10, 11. june 11, 12. june 12, 13. june 13, 14. june 14, 15. june 15, 16. june 16

If you want the details, you can click on the dates at the bottom to go to the larger picture and read that bird's description.

I'd love your comments. I think I have set my blog so that you don't have to register to comment but let me know if you have a problem.

I'll be back soon - I promise!

I haven't posted in quite a while because things got too hectic all of a sudden. The main event is that our sweet black lab, Tally, is quite ill. She apparently ate something wrapped in a paper towel because we found the remains of the paper towel.

She has been in the vet's care since last Friday morning, including the weekend critical care hospital in Sarasota. She came back to Bradenton this morning but we had to take her back to the Sarasota hospital so that she could be monitored through the night. She had exploratory surgery on Saturday, but no obstruction - just lots of inflammation of her intestines. She is still not well and we are very worried.

It's funny how much time worry can take out of a day. I have kept busy of course, but really haven't been able to concentrate for interesting blog posts, photographs, etc.

I have continued my bird project, though. Today's bird was black with a big red heart, with lots of healing thoughts for Tally as I made it. I will photograph and post the pictures before the end of the week, I promise.

In the meantime, please send good thoughts and prayers for my sweet dog. Thank you.

The Redemption of "Bless Your Heart"


I am starting a grassroots campaign to restore the good name of the good Southern phrase "bless your heart." Somewhere along the line, someone (ahem...Yankee) decided that "bless your heart" was really a veiled insult. That anything could be said, no matter how ugly, if it was followed by "bless your/his/her heart." I think it started as a joke but has begun to be accepted as gospel.

This is not true. An insult is an insult, no matter how many hearts are blessed in the making. And, generally speaking, Southerners do not offer gratuitous insults, especially veiled ones. If we are going to put you down in some way, you are going to know it and you will probably deserve it. We may use some colorful analogies. For instance, in my father's hometown of Hartford, Alabama, people who marched to their own drums were described as "crazy as old Bill Calhoun." No, I don't know who he was and I'm not sure anyone does, but he was the benchmark for crazy and no hearts were blessed in the describing.

In fact, blessing someone's heart is a lovely thing to do. The phrase may be used as an expression of gratitude as in "You are so sweet to bring me some banana bread, bless your heart!" Or sympathy, i.e. "Did you hear that his mother passed away? Bless his heart, they were always so close." Or even relief such as "Bless your heart! I didn't know what I was going to do stuck out here with this flat tire and no spare!" Let me add that these phrases are frequently spoken to strangers who have brought banana bread, sadly spoken of a mutual friend's death or stopped to change a tire. That's how we roll in the South.

In none of these examples is "bless your heart" meant to be snarky or sarcastic. In all of them, it is used for emphasis to show how much the gesture means. I have always used - and will continue to use - "bless your heart" in its original, sweet meaning. I hope that everyone will join with me in restoring its good name and intention.

The world has plenty of snark and sarcasm these days. What we really need are more blessings - of everything, but especially hearts.

Thrifty Thursday

That sounds like it's going to be a weekly feature but don't count on it. But, I do love me some alliteration and boy, did I score some bargains yesterday! I went to the warehouse sale of Sarasota accessories company, Kristine. I love sales like this - picking through bins of new merchandise that is practically free. Like the Dollar Tree, but better stuff.

I don't know how much all of this originally cost, but look what I got for $42:

I found several pairs of earrings for a dollar that I will probably deconstruct for the beads. I also got two little patent leather purse/wallets. One is bright yellow and one is bright pink. They have a detachable shoulder strap and a pocket on the outside to hold my cell phone and lipstick.

See - they hold all sorts of cards and cash. Can you read the price on the inside label? It says $24.99. Do you see the green sticker on the outside of the pink one? The one with the "2." Yep, I paid two dollars each for these.

I found some things that I am going to use for crafting supplies.

I bought two of these pearl bracelets with the fabric flowers. They are actually pretty cute worn as bracelets, but I can also take them apart and have lots of pearls and two cute flower embellishments. They also cost $2 each. I'm not sure what the yellow fabric squares are for, but the print was really cute. They are about 12 inches square and double-sided. At a dollar each, I thought they were a bargain. When I got home and opened the package, there were two in each!

But I think this is my favorite find:



These are rhinestone cuff bracelets. They are about three inches wide and the rhinestone part is a little over five inches long. They are definitely too "bling-y" for me to ever wear in public, but the bracelets are made from individual strips of rhinestones. You can sort of see this in the silver one on the top. I already cut one up to decorate yesterday's daily bird and I am in love with the possibilities. I got two silver ones, one gold one and one copper one. And they cost...wait for it...two dollars each!

It was a happy day.

Fresh Start!

I recently read a blog* that compared blogging to dating. It's more spontaneous with less commitment than a web site. You have more freedom, more experimentation.

So, I have broken it off with my old blog (Flamingos and Hedgehogs, found here) and started a new one. F & H and I had simply grown apart. Sure, I could have tried to change it - or myself - to make it work, but I just didn't see any future for us.

So, I'm happy to introduce you to "fresh made by susan." As you can see from the picture above, we've been together for a while now, and even participated in the "Made Here" craft show together. I've already made business cards and things seem to be working out. So, it seems like time to take things public.

The little bird in the photo - that's part of the fresh start. I've decided to make a little fabric bird like the one pictured every day for a year. Yes, I realize I will end up with three hundred and sixty-five stuffed birds. I have some thoughts about what I am going to do with them, but that's still evolving in my brain.

Because I am most comfortable with some structure, I have two rules for this project. Rule One: I must make a bird every day. Rule Two: I must document the inspiration and the materials used. I hope to also photograph each bird as I make it, I may not achieve that and that's okay. And, I may not feel particularly inspired some days, but that's okay too. Refer to Rule One.

This blog will include the photos of the daily birds on a semi-regular basis. But, the most fun about having a blog is that I can write about whatever I want to so I am sure I will wander down other posting roads.

I'm excited about this fresh start - and Fresh Made - and am glad you have joined me.

Susan

* I can't remember where I read this analogy but it's a great one and the author totally deserves credit. If I figure it out, I promise to tell everyone who the author is.