Do What You Love

"Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of product or service." - Steve Jobs

Many years ago, after reading
"Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow" by Marsha Sinetar, the inspiration came for following a dream of economic independence. However, the road to success is never a straight line.

Not to give up or give in.

Design, "to create and bring into being", can be applied to most anything; life itself, success, a thing.

Doing what you love has to be by design. No one can tell you what you love.

Staying on that path can be tricky. Things come up, things get hard. It may even seem like it isn't happening. It is not hard to fall into despair. Especially when the walls start falling in.

Ms. SpoolTeacher uses sewing as a default antidepressant. Whenever she feels like she is circling the drain, she tries to creates something. Usually something that has been spooling around in her mind's eye for some time, driving her to cutting something out of fabric and dreaming something up.

Go to http://consewvation.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/ring-around-the-collar/ to see what she's been up to lately to ward off the evil uglies. This is a first attempt. A prototype? When she was trying to reverse engineer a sleeping futon a while back, she got sidetracked and spent that day spooling around and ended up making a haute handbag from an old flannel shirt. She also made the shirt pillow the same day. She got a crazy idea then of what could be done with the disassembled collars. She's finally getting to it. Although, this one was developed from scratch, not one from up-cycling.

It's a crazy item. Halloween around the corner, she was led to the color scheme you see. As it is shown above is how she imagined it to be used. However, it takes on many rolls. It can be worn as a crazy headband, wrapped around the breast as a silly topper (best over something since it is sheer, unless it is for a special someone in a private showing). It can be wrapped around the neck the other way (up) and then the ruffle stands. Maybe she will do a shoot and show you the alternatives...once she finds a wispy willowy model who has an avant-garde look.

She will keep you posted. Until then, she wishes you great success, however it winds around..



"Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle." - again, Steve Jobs

Jackson Pollock Style Floor Treatment

It was fun to pretend to be
Jackson Pollock  for a minute or two. At the least, it made one want to study his methods.







Credit:http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424715839/424667384/hans-namuth-jackson-pollock.html

When it came time to bring Lollipops & Polka Dots Variety Shop to the home "studio" garage, it was time also to do something about that awful peel-n-stick floor.

First things first; it had to be cleaned. Scrubbed, and scrubbed. This old garage conversion has holes all over and is like a sieve. It was converted for the previous owners to place an elder in to live. (Don't know how they survived.)

Only 1/2 of the space has these tiles on it. Of course all the contents of the room had been shoved to the other side which is concrete. One side at a time. The picture above this one is after this scrubbing and it was ready for a high adhesive primer...

Much better already. This was a Glidden product and worked especially well. Very happy with the quality and results. (no sponsorship here, just a happy camper) Whenever something works well, it is hard not to recommend it. That's the point of something being good. It will sell itself, without paying. Kudos Glidden!

The next step was to paint on a base coat as a background. To be sure there would be enough, several cans of left-overs were combined, adding only the shades that would create the undertones desired. Knowing that it would all "brown/gray" out, cool undertones were chosen to keep it fresh seeming.

Now for the Jackson Pollock fun!

jackson pollock

 Be sure to put on a pair of old shoes or socks you won't mind throwing away. (could always frame as their own "work of art"?)

You could always tape up some paper to keep the "slings" from throwing up on the wall, or you could just paint over it "later". (Ms. SpoolTeacher's famous last words)

 



Start slingin'...

Use your intuition...

Get into it...


Let your mind go...have fun...don't think too hard...

 




Clean up the walls "later", maybe?

 

Maybe not? Kinda looks cool?

Try to balance the distribution so there is a sense of unity throughout. 

Don't let the doggies in until it dries...unless of course, their "signatures" are required.

(See Ms. Purple-haired Annie up on the shelf?)

(Polka Dot Chairs hand spray painted by Ms. Spool Teacher)

This arrangement didn't last very long. It was too much of a sieve, the dirt and dust were impossible to keep at bay, the weather was too hard to control, the City came a callin'...The "studio" really needs an overhall. But; The Shoppe is home, in holding, waiting on the next miracle!

There's always HOPE.

This was the room before...so, high 5 Ms. SpoolTeacher. A job well done!
(you don't even want to know..!)