Natural Happiness

The New York Times yearly Green Issue Magazine featured an article 2 weeks ago about how environmentalism is actually a self centered case as 'we human beings are natural-born zoologists and botanist's who 'thrive in the presence of nature and suffer in its absence'.

For about 2 years now, we were  living with two dead birch tree trunks in our front yard. But occupied with our busy working lives and being first time parents we didn't even notice! We thought, the trees were just exceptionally slow growers - they even weathered a hefty icestorm. But last year it finally dawned on us that they in fact had been dead for a long time. 

With an affinity to everything Eastern, i felt the two trees weren't doing the feng-shui of our house any good, and i started to feel how i wanted to have something vibrant and living and beautiful on our planting strip. Not to mention helping the city and our neighborhood out on their $15 mio. storm water project. 

Yesterday it was finally the day: I was able to witness two people making happiness naturally happen. The Treepeople came, pulled the two pitty full birches out of the lawn - very sad to see their non existent roots - and with much thought, love and care, gave our Cherry Tree a new home. 

with the right tools...

and somewhat heavy artillery, Brian and his colleague 

lifted the 650 pound Kwanzan Cherry tree into its new home.

A couple of little guys i knitted this year. They are cute, knit up super fast and - have been free ravelry downloads by very generous bloggers.

This Stuffie is a free Ysolda pattern. I knitted this one with double yarn which gets a bit finicky at some point but was worth it for the density of the body.

The green guy was a present for Patti Green of Green. She's just opened her beautiful Hair Salon. definitely worth checking out when you happen to be in Portland, OR.

in the making



This little Elefante is a free design by Susan B. Anderson. The instructions for the guy are here.

Faeroe Wrap II

It is finished and all done! Didn't take that long (about 2.5 weeks) but is a very, very clever design, looks stunning and have received positive comments everywhere i go with it. Met Nancy from Close Knits and she featured the wrap on her blog I am super happy and know that this piece will be a part of my wardrobe for probably ever! More info on it on ravelry - my Username is TangerineSamurai, please add me in your friend list i'd love to connect with other knitters!



These pics are Nancy's:

Giving me chills

and not in a positive way.

Beautiful DIY

I just found this on Designsponge and checked poopscape for the tutorial. Absolutely gorgeous and i will be collecting some pebble stones next time we are going to the beach. Stay tuned

What happened to Maharishi?

Photo by net-a-porter.

Looks like one of my all time favourite brands - Maharishi - has closed down operations.

In my mind, Hardy Blechman who started Maharishi as early as 1994, has been one the most inspirational and visionary designers i can think of. The Snopants - was probably the most copied pant design in the late 90s. Maharishi (sanskrit for 'great vision') was founded on the idea of reworking old military surplus gear through dyeing, printing and embroidery. Hardy had worked for commercial fashion brands before and was early on committed to sustainable practices and the use of natural fibers but found it hard to convince leadership to actually use these materials. He introduced Hemp into the line because of the downside of cotton growing. Funny how more then 15 years later it's still hard to change to a more environmentally sound way of garment production. Sure it needs a whole new production infrastructure which is hard to carve out for big brands if your eyes are always on the bottom line or Wall Street.

I found this interview with Hardy Blechman on Format Magazine.

I am glad to have bought quite a couple of Maharishi items throughout the last 10 years and even though i have worn them so many times i still treasure them greatly. i will feature some of them over the next couple of weeks and explain why i bought it in the first place.

First up - The one-shoulder dragon top i wore at my wedding!




look at how the dragon wraps itself from front to back!




Just look at the beauty of this interior label. Isn't that what attention to detail is all about. You are not getting any bang for your buck here but people like myself enjoy this so much! This label alone makes the garment special.

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COS - Collection of Style

Going back to Germany in February i was really interested to check out a new chain i heard about in November last year. I was eager to see what this is all about. Gladly, i knew that there is one store on Marienplatz in Munich city center.
COS - short for Collection of Style is a 2-year old sub label of H&M. Other then the mother-company, the small design team resides in London and not in Stockholm. As i learned there is one head designer for the womens and one for the men's collection. Their pricing structure is above the H&M prices but still extremely affordable for the type of design you are getting. The vest on the left for example is only 39 Euros (currently $52,50)! I initially thought, with prices like that, production would be based out of China, but found out it's mainly in eastern Europe and Portugal. The color palette is quite subdued and reminds me of what Stella Mc Cartney would go for.  Seasonal subtle changes still ensure that everything you purchased the previous season merchandises well with the new offering. In order to bring in current new colors - and insuring a trend is not missed - COS offers trend right accessories. For the current season this means bright pop colors, cyan, orange, pink. I couldn't resist and bought a couple of pieces that i will add to the post once i find the time to take some decent pictures. On a side note: COS is also publishing a seasonal oversized magazine that covers artists, editors, photographers and product. In addition it showcases the apparel in a very appealing editorial. Click here to download the current Spring Summer 09 edition as pdf.

Oliver + S patterns

The other day i posted how i am starting to get into sewing again. I found this super simple instructions for the 'lazy day skirt' here and sewed 2 skirts the other day with Katie. It literally just took one hour and a half and was such a gratifying experience. So i got hooked and want to try some more elaborate patterns she's selling. The one i was after, the Bubble dress was unfortunately sold out at Bolt and the Fabric Depot so i went online and ordered directly from her website! Only two days later the ordered patterns were already in my mailbox! I opened the envelope and was very impressed with the graphic design, the professional thank you note and the marketing-inlay promoting her new patterns. Very impressive! Check it out - the photo doesn't do it justice - i photographed it last evening...

Inspirations from Indian beach

Here a couple of mood pictures from our beach trip last Sunday. We went to Ecola State Park where the beach scene in 'Twilight' was filmed. It was a bit chilly but very pretty.

Entrepreneurial Series Part II

I fell a bit short on posting anything meaningful about the Entrepreneurial webinar series i have been attending this week. First day it was discussed how important it is to ensure the business we are about to go into is the right one. Apparently the single biggest problem for new businesses to fail is to not have picked the right one to begin with. Ensuring that there is the need for 'sustainable passion' that carries one through the unavoidable downfalls. I would say i am probably encountering interesting roadblocks anywhere! Embodying the true american lifestyle with the entrepreneurial spirit but not being allowed to act on it the way i want is making it hard. More interesting for me however were some really good research sources to analyze the market. For example at www.ipl.org. Then we learned about business structures the pro's and the con's of Corporations, LLCs and Proprietorship/Partnerships. And why to separate the private and business account. I didn't think of it in the first place but one's accounts would be frozen if there was an audit and no access to money for the duration of that audit. Doesn't sound that good. Today we spoke about Branding, E-commerce and risk management. After having worked for some of the biggest athletic apparel brands in the industry the branding segment was a bit of old news to me. Info on e-commerce was much better suitable for me and i have to admit that i spaced out a bit when we got to the risk management information. Most of this is insurance related but also included the ramifications of identity theft.