Riding in Cars with Boys

Riding in Cars with Boys is a memoir by Beverly Donofrio published in 1990 by Penguin. In the book, Donofrio finds herself pregnant while still in high school. She fore goes her plans to attend college and instead marries the father, Ray, and the three attempt to start a family. Her husband turns out to be a drug addict and is chronically unemployed; the two divorce, and Donofrio eventually attends college and moves with her son to New York City to pursue a career in writing. In 2001 Riding in Cars with Boys was made into a movie starring Drew Barrymore.

One thing that really struck me about this book were the cultural differences between 1963, the year when Donofrio found herself pregnant, and today. In the book, Donofrio's parents strongly encourage the teenage marriage. Today, many parents finding their daughters in the same position would unfortunately encourage her to have an abortion, and nearly all would encourage her give the baby up for adoption so that she could still pursue higher education.

Riding in Cars was written in two parts; the first seems to mostly recite the facts; the pregnancy, Beverly's marriage to Ray, her subsequent involvement in drugs, and the difficulties that she faced as a single mother pursuing a college degree. Part II takes place about fifteen years later, when she and her son have been living on their own for about twelve years in New York City, and is more of an analysis of her life. "I've been thinking lately that maybe there is a big design, that the end is there already in the beginning and there's nothing we can do about it, not even in a lifetime."

And she talks about Olivia, the women with crippled feet who lives down the hall. Olivia says, "Never got married because of my feet. I know three languages, but never travelled. I gave up religion because I am so bitter." Beverly herself concludes that Olivia "hobbled herself because of her belief about her feet."

In saying this, Beverly concludes that she herself found her own way out of the treachery of having a child as a teenager.

So much about this book was paradox; how Beverly's son crippled her own life, and yet she admits he was the best thing that happened to her. And the characters themselves; Beverly for being so foolish as to get pregnant in the first place, then getting into drugs, yet demonstrating so much determination to get herself through college, her good-hearted but totally worthless husband, and her parents for being so supportive yet almost cruelly merciless towards her predicament.

I liked that this was a story without a fairy tale ending; she didn't meet the man of her dreams in New York, she didn't get married in the end, she didn't become wildly wealthy or successful. It is such a relief to read a story as real as this one.

Rachael Brooke Jewelry

Check out this elegant necklace from Rachael Brooke! Her "simply striking style" is so elusive; it is hard to tell if I want to wear this necklace with a cotton t-shirt or silky black dress. And really, I guess that I could wear it with either.

Rachael Brooke describes her style as “High-Style/Low-Tech...my design aesthetic is on the minimal side and it's rewarding to know that people respond to that".



One of the most paradoxical thing about simplicity, I have found, is that it can be very difficult and long process to create something simple that is also beautiful. I would liken it to trying to writing a haiku.

Rachael Brooke jewelry appeals to many women, since it is the kind of jewelry a person can dress up or dress down in.



Rachael Brooke lives in Wisconsin and does all of her work out of a studio just outside her own house. It is one of the great benefits of the Internet, then, that her work is so widely available to other parts of the country and world!

You can purchase Rachael Brooke jewelry at her etsy store and read more about her at her blog, "My Creative Hustle".

Jo Bean Purse

I'm out with a new and improved fun Jo-Bean purse. The only really dramatic change is that the strap on the torso-strap version of the purse now secures with a bow. I was ambivalent about making lots of changes and/or adjustment to this purse, and finally decided that it would be the "KISS" purse; just a simple practical purse without lots of frills. There really is a market for that; my sister Lizzy (pictured in the photos) says that it is her favorite purse in my line.



I just started to use the JoBean with the long-strap-bow and found that I really like it! I measured the length of the strap so that the bow would hit just about at the chest.

Of course, since it is a bow, then a person can also adjust the size however they might choose.

The JoBean is named after my youngest sister, who's actual name is Madeline Josephine, but among her many nicknames we have sometimes resorted to calling her "JoBean".



The Jo Bean has a front and back pocket that close with buttons (as pictured above) plus two interior pockets with pen holders. Some of the Jo Beans close with a zipper, and some with a button. Everything on the purse is made from recycled materials, except for the zippers, and the purse is machine washable.



These Jo Beans will be available for sale at my website and etsy store later on this week!

Open by Andre Agassi

I received the autobiography "Open" by Andre Agassi at a white elephant exchange this Christmas and then surprised myself by reading all 386 pages in under a week! (very unusual for me). This book saved my life as on the way back from Seattle (arriving in Portland) in late Dec 2009 we encountered a snowstorm, and so arrived THREE HOURS late!!!
The book reads pretty quickly but you have to wait until all the way to page 327 to arrive at the best part; when Stefi Graff and Andre Agassi's fathers, both men in their 60s, are bare-chested and putting up their fists at one another and yelling, "Come on! You and me!"

It was at this point in the book when I came to fully appreciate that none, or few in any event, of the people in Andre Agassi's life, himself included, are average human beings.
Andre Agassi's father, for example, was driven to have a professional tennis player out of one of his four children, and had Andre hitting 2,500 balls a day by the age of seven. A few years later, he is prepared to place all of his savings; $10 Grand, on a match between Andre and Jim Brown, the professional football player. And at the age of 12, he sends Andre to the Nick Bolletteri Tennis Academy in Florida, which Andre describes as a sort of internment-camp for young tennis players.
Academics became too distracting and difficult for Andre, and so he was allowed to drop out of high school and became a professional tennis player at the age of 16. Andre's tennis career over the next 20 years won him a "Golden Slam"; all four Grand Slams plus the Olympic Gold Medal. Tennis, he describes, became a "wrenching, thrilling, horrible, astonishing, whirl", and something that he in fact hates to play.
We meet many other characters in the book; Pete Sampras, one of his fiercest competitors, Gil, his beloved trainer, and Courier, who would lace up his tennis shoes and go jogging after he beat Agassi in a match.

One thing about this book that I couldn't figure out is the title. "Open" obviously may refer to all of the Opens that Agassi has played in and in several cases won, but as for another meaning, I am totally at a loss. And having that haunting portrait of him on the front cover is a little creepy; he "has that look you very rarely find, the haunting, hunted kind". The book has several portraits throughout the book, but I thought that it might have had more, especially from his early years as a professional tennis player, when he became somewhat of a celebrity with his distinct mullet-hairstyle.

This book really has something for everyone; sports and suspense and romance. Given Agassi's level of education, it is a wonder that he managed to write it at all. (The skeptic in me wonders if he really did). He seems to remember every detail from every match he has ever played in, and relates it all very suspensefully, the best part when he wins against Medvedv in the French Open, the only grand slam which at that point he had not won. In this match, he describes how he came back when Medvedv was one serve away from winning the match, and describes the psyche of each of the players. You get a clear idea that tennis is not about playing well, but rather about playing better than your opponent; attacking his weaknesses.

Agassi writes in many 1-3 word sentences, and writes in short separate ideas that makes the book easy to read and to not lose interest. The final 50 pages get pretty boring, with Agassi receiving more and more cortisone shots (At one point four in one year). It is painful to read the descriptive passages at this point, as he describes how is body is slowly falling apart and yet he refuses to stop playing. He has a good sense of humor, and makes lots of references to pop culture throughout the book (Karate Kid, Groundhog Day); at one point he says that he took "one of those showers that makes you think you should write a check to several environmental groups and plant a tree".
Agassi talks honestly about using drugs and then lying about it to tennis officials, his divorce with Brook Shields (she was WAY too old money for him), and his pursuit of Stefi Graff when the ink on the divorce papers wasn't yet dry.

I liked watching Agassi interviewed on David Letterman at different points in his life; once in 1994 and a second time after he had published this book. You could see how he had really matured from the punk tennis player to a mature adult. In the second interview, he also speaks about his hatred for tennis; saying that he likens it to so many other people who are trapped in careers or jobs that they do not like, and that it was a predicament that he ultimately accepted.

SewUpscale

While pursuing through people on Twitter search, I came across the most amazing craft line, known as "SewUpscale"!

SewUpscale creates high-quality quilted postcards. Could you imagine receiving one of these in the mail? It would be awesome! It's the postcard that you would never throw away and that you might in fact even frame!!! (This is what strikes me as ironic about postcard art; something that's framable arriving as a postcard, which a person normally might throw away.)

SewUpscale's designer quilts her postcards in vibrant gold thread, and says in her etsy shop that she strives to keep the quality high and the cost of shipping low. Good philosophy! In addition to postcards, SewUpscale also creates fabric magnets. And she has got some GREAT deals on postcards in her sale section.



SewUpscale's designer comes from Western North Carolina (the same area where my grandparents used to have a house......beautiful area!) and Upper East Tennessee, which influences much of the landscape in her art. Look at this beautiful landscape; you can tell that she has really put a lot of time into creating these postcards.



Isn't this magnet WAY cute???? I just love her stuff. It's a way of turning ordinary household things into quality art!


You can learn more about SewUpscale by visiting her etsy store

Handmade Quilt

Today I am going to write about the quilt that I made for my friend, Pat Harvey, who got married just last September.

Even though it meant that I would miss the opportunity to volunteer for the Portland Marathon, I decided to go all the way out to the wedding in Connecticut, and on the way decided to visit my friend Paudie in New York City who I hadn't seen for SIX YEARS! Which was hard to believe. We have both aged a lot since then, but still enjoy drinking Guinness!



I made this quilt from some fabrics that I received from my friend, Jackie, who is an expert quilter and has excellent taste in colors and fabrics! So I felt very grateful that she decided to pass on some of her materials to me.

Unlike much of the "random" patchwork that I do, this quilt followed a fairly systematic pattern of using the orange/red fabric as the base and interior to squares made from green, purple, and yellow fabrics.



I like the way that it turned out. It's one of my fave quilts that I have made, in fact. Pat and his wife like it as well, they mentioned to me. I do not know the exact dimensions, but it lays on top of a full or queen size bed.

Text messages

I received today from an unknown sender:

"Do you wanna go tanning ? And maybe go to the mall ?"

A second, two hours later,

"Well if you want to hang out today let me know"

Then finally a third,

"Hey do you wanna go to pf changs ? Ill buy ;)"

At this point I called the person who was sending me the texts. The sender "Erika" had been intending to send the messages to "Amy".

I had a good laugh.

Krishna Ramji

The purse line that I am featuring today is Krishna Ramji, which is also the name of the purse designer.

Krishna Ramji purses are "pleat happy"; Krishna says that "each purse always has some kind of pleating or fabric manipulation to it". Krishna makes her purses from wool or suede or recycled clothing. Her work is inspired by the Victorian Era.

She has a great quote that guides her design-work; "a handbag has to be like a piece of art but still serve its purpose." I like that.....bringing art into a practical medium.


Krishna is only 23 years old, and her purse business is based out of London.

I like that Krishna has a very clear artist statement; she knows what ideas and designs are influencing the purses that she creates. Unfortunately, it appears that Krishna has a very weak internet presence; I could not find a website for her, and the only way to order purses is to e-mail her directly.


You can read more about Krishna Ramji here

Fayth Pouch

The Fayth Pouch is a little pouch that I designed just before Christmas last year, or maybe it was more like in November. Anyway, it was pretty recently.

I have been getting into putting pleats into my purses, and the Fayth is no exception. It has one central pleat, and the top part of the pouch is lined with jean. The Fayth is 5" high by 5" wide (6" at the base) and is machine washable. It was also made from recycled materials.

Also, the Fayth closes with a 4" zipper.

I have found that I really really like this little pouch; I think that it is large enough to hold some big things, like keys and a cell phone, and the zipper makes smaller things like small change secure. Additionally, it takes a relatively short time to make, which is why I can sell it for only $8.

The Fayth is named after a lady who I knew up in Seattle who had a 1-2 year old boy, KJ, just the same age as the little boy, Jordon, who I nannied for, and so we would get together a lot so that the kids could play.

Fayth has a very spazzy personality, and is the kind of person who is very much into sending out lots and lots of e-mail forwards. Her e-mail forwards tend to be the kind with very unusual or beautiful pictures of nature or else the kind that attempt to be mildly or (as in some cases) very amusing.

Kind of like this moon shot she sent to me in March of 08 (cannot believe it was THAT long ago!), that I thought was totally awesome.


Don't you agree? I even had this as my screen saver for a great while.

I haven't had an e-mail forward from Fayth in awhile however, but that is OK. If she had started to send me too many, I might have had to put her into my e-mail filter, which has been the unfortunate fate of some of my friends and acquaintances.

Those e-mail forwards, no matter how fascinating or funny, can at times get to be so goddamned annoying. I had a friend, for example, who would send out e-mail forwards in two categories; one for "funny" and the other for "spiritual". The spiritual e-mails would be long and interesting explanations on various saints or Holy Days in the Catholic Church, or about random people who I had never heard of who were in desperate need of prayers, because ie they had just been in a terrible accident, had just died, had a deadly disease, etc.

His funny e-mails actually were really funny. Or funny for me anyway, since I happen to have a cheesy sense of humor, just like him. For example, he sent out an e-mail once about the existence of Bigfoot (I think that he claims to have seen big foot at one point out in Oklahoma), or another of my faves was a u-tube video of a man who got sent to the doghouse for buying a vacuum for his wife for Christmas. See what I mean? Sort of light, amusing humor. Oh, another one....after the fiscal crash in 2009, a video of professionals (in business suits) being picked up the way migrant workers are, in the back of a truck, to go do day labor. He's the kind of guy who thinks that Idiocracy is very funny. (You know~that Mike Judge movie.)

Despite their quality of being interesting or funny however, the e-mails had the unfortunate additional quality of being FREQUENT. Very frequent, as in 2-3 times a day of frequency. I didn't have the heart to ask him to stop sending them to me however, and so now his e-mails are going to the section of my g-mail account reserved for spam. So sad, to see a friendship come to an end just because someone has a fetish for e-mail forwards.



So anyway, back to the point (although at this point I cannot BELIEVE that anyone would still be reading, after my long and pointless tirade): The Fayth. A great practical pouch. Buy it here Only 8 bucks. You will love it, I know ;)

Kristin Grocery Bag

The Kristin Grocery Bag is a purse that I designed last fall/winter. I was walking home from Albertsons one day and I started to think about the grocery bag that I was holding in my hand. When I got home and had unpacked my groceries, I laid the bag out flat and decided that I would attempt to create a grocery bag from the same dimensions. And so the Kristin came to be.

The first few Kristin bags that I made proved to be heinously difficult. It can be difficult to work with some jean material because it stretches and doesn't end up looking how it should. However, I worked with the design to get the dimensions right and adjustable, and I have found that making a Kristin is a fairly smooth process.

The Kristin is named after a friend who I know through my oldest sister, and who I spent a great deal of time with this summer when she came to stay with us for our sister's wedding. Kristin is a vegan and is very eco-conscious, and so I thought that naming his bag after her would be appropriate. (I haven't yet told her that I have named it after her, but maybe that doesn't matter.)

Kristin also has an awesome blog of her own documenting the Camino Frances pilgrimage she took from Pamplona, Spain to Santiago, Spain in 2009.

The Kristin is designed to be a grocery bag that you can use over and over again. It is machine washable, and I have designed the Kristin with three layers of material and with reinforced handles, so that it can carry heavy items. Additionally, the Kristin has an interior pocket for things like keys or a grocery list, and a pen holder. You can check out individual Kristins that I have for sale at my etsy store.

Chicks and Girlies

Handbag 101 just featured Chicks and Girlies, which is how I came to discover this interesting line of purses based out of Sasketchewan.

What most intrigues me about "Chicks and Girlies" is that all of the handmade leather bags are one of a kind, and the designer, Sheri Sopczak, makes them without a pattern.

It makes me wonder then how long one purse would make, and I marvel that she is able to make a functional purse "on the first try", although she does mention in her bio at Hangbag 101 that she has cried many tears over improperly cut pieces of leather that must then be wasted.

On the flipside of making OOAK purses, Sheri must never get tired of the creative process. She must have many many ideas running around in her head, and she gets to execute them all. Unlike myself; who has a lot of ideas but doesn't come close to executing all of them.

Sheri she has a little-girls clothing line; after reading more about her I discovered that she actually has triplets (all girls, 8 years old) and makes clothing designed for girls that age.

The little boy who I am taking care of right now has been screaming for 15 minutes, apparently he isn't ready for his nap.

Anyhoo........Chicks and Girlies purses are made with bright bold colors, yes I would like to own one. I especially like this diper bag. It is a really fashionable one. It has a drawstring closure, and I think that I just like those colors green and black togetether Kind of trendy, but nice.

Chicks and Girlies also has a FaceBook Fan Page.

Blogger Visit

I've had to give my little studio a scrubbing......a California blogger who goes by the name "My Year Without Spending" wants to visit me while she is in Portland visiting her bother, oh, I mean brother.



How does it look? She thinks her trip may be detained by jury duty, but even if it doens't come to pass, at least it has given me the impetus to clean the place up!!!