best ever home improvement posting

This is the story about a man with a dream

and very fetching bright yellow towel.

Here are the best set of instructions for a home improvement project

ever:

Extreme Eric Three Thousand: Home Edition!

It provides the usually witty commentary we've all come to know and love from Eric3K:

"Why pay a plumber when you can do a thoroughly unprofessional job yourself?"

plus helpful and hilarious photographs:

don't ask why

This time Eric3K and Other Eric have decided to use their talents for good and not evil: i.e., to explain and illustrate a successful how-to project for upgrading your bathroom.

I don't want to give too much away so I've just cut out some teasers:

Just click on the helping hands.

how many rock stars does it take to change a light bulb?

"Like most Americans I like to help people while being on tv."
- Maria Bamford

Here's the thing about Live Earth:

I just don't need household tips on cutting down on my use of resources from people who live far more lavish lives than I could ever imagine, thank you very much.

Here are a few things that ordinary people who are living within a budget do not need to learn from movie and rock stars:

Turn off the light. Put on a sweater if you are cold. You don't need that. You can use that again. Make it yourself. Give it to someone who needs it. Leave a place as clean as you found it.

Photograph by Russell Lee | Library of Congress : American Memory

Some people do this because they are worried about being able to afford to pay the bills rather than because they want to save the environment.

Hollywood telling ordinary Americans how to conserve resources is outrageous.

Americans telling this to people in Brazil is offensive.

Okay. It's fine if Hollywood and rock stars want to support environmental causes and use their celebrity to draw people to events. This is part of the fundraising world.

However, the various forms of hypocrisy do get a little hard to swallow: did Sheryl Crow sing her SUV-promoting song "Every Day is a Winding Road?" Seriously: when you are making fistfuls of money off of promoting SUVs can you really call yourself an environmentalist?

I know I'm being cynical. And I'm not the target for Live Earth. I was more the Live Aid generation. I do realize that telling people to use energy-saving light bulbs is a way of making people feel like they are helping and that is important. Even more important is spreading awareness of the larger political issues that have to do with oil companies, car companies, governments, the Kyoto accord, the world bank, rain forests, global poverty, etc.

The biggest problem with Americans on an individual level is our use of gas guzzling cars. Changing that has to do with developing and improving mass transportation systems and smaller cars. And then getting Americans to change their habits and start using them. I'm not holding my breath. Maybe this generation will change. It is a little hard to believe they will when the icons that are preaching to them are also flying private jets and promoting SUVs.

We need a government that is far more committed to providing people with what they need in order to conserve whether it be recycling programs or investment in making alternative energy resources not just feasible but cheap. (By the way, do all of the performers at Live Earth -- the people who can afford to do this -- have homes that run on alternative energy?) I don't need tips on how to conserve energy. I know how to do this. Here is what I do need: affordable solar energy. I would like to be able to afford to install solar panels. Ahem, Governor Schwarzenegger (link: why is arnold at live earth?).

while I'm away

I'll be away this week. Remember to take the trash out. Don't fight over the remote. The emergency numbers are by the phone.

When I return I will be moving on to talking about Laura and Vionnet, plus home economics. Kora is really into home ec. Then I want to know what the deal is with safaris. Is jungle fever going around again? And of course we will discuss the matter of why Uli didn't win. (She was robbed!)

Meanwhile, break into small groups and talk amongst yourselves. Here's the topic: Is Laura the new Martha Stewart? What suggestions do you have for various segments on her show: Laura Bennett's Living Fabulously?

the hobbien mysteries

"Doesn't this kinda look Holly Hobbie?" -- Tim Gunn

Oh, Tim Gunn. You are wise in many ways, but there are some mysteries of which you do not know. Beware Tim Gunn. Do not scoff at a power higher than even your own. You have tread upon the sacred territory of American femininity. The Way of Holly Hobbie takes many forms and wields great power over many worlds. And yes, Tim Gunn, it is even woven (to be more accurate I should say it is quilted) into the fabric of the world of fashion. But more importantly, The Way of Holly Hobbie is a journey of the soul.

---------------------------------

the way of holly hobbie: her return

her arrival is welcomed by multitudes.

American Greetings Corporation first introduced Holly Hobbie in 1967. She reached her peak in the late 1970s. Just last year (2005) they brought the "classic" image of HH back into production.

You can find out about the history of Holly Hobbie here:
http://www.hollyhobbie.com/HollyHobbie/history.do

This site includes information about the new incarnation of HH: her great-granddaughter, who has long blond hair and instead of a bonnet she wears what I call a "Fat Albert" hat (not to be confused with a Mush Mouth hat).
---------------------------------

Angela seems to be more into the look of the great-granddaughter rather than the original Holly Hobbie, given her fondness for the Fat Albert Hat:

2006










----------------------------------------------------------------------------

the way of holly hobbie: rituals and mores

Sewing was a significant aspect of the Holly Hobbie world. Making dolls and quilting were two a popular projects. You could even buy a HH child's toy sewing machine.































"Traditional home crafts" were an important aspect of Holly Hobbie. It was all about the hand-made. These practices instilled the domestic object with the aura of its maker. Objects were created with care -- often made together as a socially bonding activity -- and were usually intended as a gifts. They were endowed with the power to strengthen relationships, especially women's and girls' friendships and mother/daughter bonds.

This is a world without fathers, without adult men. The only males that appear in the imagery are usually younger brothers or non-sexual but romantic boys.

---------------------------------

Like "Little House on the Prairie" HH romanticized the time and place and life of early pioneers. (Like that was a great time to be female in America.) The aesthetic was sentimental and nostalgic for the "simple joys of childhood." Puppies and kittens frolicked. All children were well-behaved, rosy-cheeked, productive, and white and pure as the clouds of glory that they trailed.

Of course, this romantic nostalgia for childhood and the idealized past is hardly new.

---------------------------------

the way of holly hobbie: wait . . . what?

The renewal of interest in Holly Hobbie is a nostalgia for the already nostalgic. (Note to self: that could be a future topic for kih | letters.) I'm curious about why she is being re-introduced now. What is the current fascination all about?

I also think Holly Hobbie may have also been a reaction to the non-traditional career woman that was voicing itself in American culture. At the same time, and paradoxically, Holly Hobbie was a translation of the seventies, living-with-nature, post-hippy independent natural-woman into an image that appealed to middle American suburban girls.

Laura Ingalls Wilder. Macrame. Fern Bars. Knee Socks. Carol King.

I'm sure it all made sense at the time.

--------------------------------------

circa 1974

Somewhere in Middle America . . .

1974

My mom made this dress for me. I picked out the pattern and the Holly Hobbie fabric. It was one of my favorite dresses of all time.

It tied in the back. And note the collar and sleeve cuffs ... the knee socks ... and the shoes: blue and white oxfords. It's a whole look.

You may laugh (and for good reason: I look like a dork) but I was so fond of that dress that I still think I looked great in it.

This picture was probably taken on the first day of school. My mom always made a new outfit for me to wear on the first day of classes.





---------------------
A brief foray in to architectural and interior design history: Is that house a classic '70s era split-level ranch with redwood siding? Why yes, yes it is. Did my bedroom have mod rainbow wallpaper in shades of yellow and orange? Yes it did. Did the sheets match? Funny you should ask. Indeed they did. But that was nothing compared to the previous decor: ruffled bedspread and cafe curtains covered in hallucinogenic pink and purple mushrooms.
---------------------


This is a close-up of the fabric.
It's an old photograph so this is as good as it gets.







--------------------

(Below) Spring 2006: Anna Sui, and Fall 1974: Mom.