Wacky Wednesday #88—Plastic Bottles

Today’s outfit of the day definitely involves strange accessories—even stranger than some of my other Wacky Wednesdays. Some WWs have a colorful look or have sparkly aspects. This one is much less colorful and sparkly than some. But I’m taking a break from the sparkly to explore the untapped potential of plastic bottles as accessories.

Pro: they’re very lightweight to wear.

Con: I look like I fell into a recycling can.

Pro: the scrunched-up surfaces of the bottles makes for a lot of visual texture and variety.

Con: empty water bottles make me thirsty.

Pro: this outfit will be entirely recyclable when I’m finished with it and won’t add to my clutter.

Con: my art pile clutter is at such a state that a few extra bottles won’t tip the scales.

I broke down and added a little bit of water (dyed with food coloring) to some of the bottles for a pop of color. Turns out I am not good at wearing clear, uncolorful accessories and I had to remedy the lack of color.

This week’s accessories fit with a theme I often visit: taking something from everyday life--something most people don’t think of as beautiful or interesting—and giving it a chance to be in the spotlight.

To a lesser degree, I’m also promoting recycling, which is something I do on a daily basis. Recycling isn’t necessarily limited to plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It could mean cutting up an old sweater and turning it into a capelet and giving it new life. But I’m not here to preach (a lot) so let’s get back to the wackiness and just enjoy the fun of turning something forgettable into something unforgettable.

And don’t forget the sunglasses…

I’m not quite at the point of plastic bottle underpants but if anyone out there develops some, let me know!

Do I have Egg on my Face?

Egg-blowing is the new Pilates. You heard it here first.

It’s Easter season and I decided to decorate a few eggs. So I poked holes in the ends of five eggs and started blowing the contents out. Have you tried this? It’s an alternative to using hard-boiled eggs. This way, you empty the egg shell so that you can decorate the eggs and keep them displayed without having to refrigerate them overnight.

It’s been a year or two since I blew out the insides of eggs and I’d forgotten that it takes quite a bit of force to get the goo out. By the time the fifth egg was empty, my exhausted cheek muscles felt like they’d been pinched by a hundred grandmothers. And my abs felt like they’d done a million crunches. I realized I’d conquered new levels of multitasking: working out my core and prepping for Easter. And that’s why I’m promoting the newest exercise trend: egg blowing for fitness and home décor.

Mid-way through the egg blowing I thought, “I’d better take a photo of this.” It seemed like a good idea, since I sensed a blog post in the works. But maybe it was the lightheadedness speaking. Because I’ll tell you: I did take two photos, and they are possibly the least flattering photos I have ever taken in my life. So I’ll spare you the horror and I will assure you that a close up of me, forcing air into the egg clutched between my tired lips is bad enough to picture in your head. You don’t need the visual. But the effort was worth it. My body may be tired but the eggs are empty. This is what we artists call suffering for our art.

I need a nap.

Anyway, I now have five empty eggs and I want to decorate them with supplies I haven’t used before on Easter eggs. One year I tried a silk transfer method. The pattern from your silk fabric transfers onto the eggshell for beautiful, colorful results. Other times we have used the PAAS egg decorating kits, which are fun. But please—I have a studio (crammed) full of delightful (and random) supplies and I thought it would be fun to decorate eggs using some of my craft stash.

 

 

 

I ended up decorating the eggs with decoupage. I used a clear product I already had to stick paper to my eggs, but you could use glue if you had some at home. Once I had my adhesive on part of the egg, I pressed small pieces of tissue paper onto the surface until the tissue was flattened against the egg. Then I secured it with more glue. This is so easy and because tissue paper is translucent, you get cool layers of color. On a few eggs I added a little bit of ribbon, pieces of paper doily or tiny silk flowers. I also gave makeovers to a few eggs I’d saved from previous years—adding tissue paper to the color already on the eggs. Keeping previous years’ hollow eggs in a Tupperware box in the garage is a good way to protect them from year to year, and to add to your collection. In related findings, keeping previous years’ eggs in a Tupperware box in the garage (alongside tons of other decorations and many bikes and boxes of random stuff) is not a good way to deal with the garage clutter. But hey, I’m only human. And egg decorating is much more fun than garage mess sorting.

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or simply the magic of spring…Whether your eggs are plastic or dyed or bedazzled or scrambled…

Happy Spring!

Wacky Wednesday #87—Oranges

Spring is here and it’s making me want to dress in as much color as possible.

(Well, actually, I always want to wear a lot of cheery color. It’s not exclusively a spring thing for me…)

Today I’m wearing oranges. A lot of oranges. More than a year ago I did a WW themed around lemons, but I think the citrus family is varied enough to warrant a separate outfit celebrating oranges, don’t you?

 

I decided to refashion a WW costume from the past—my Orange is the New Black dress. The dress was a good base for today’s costume, and I added oranges slices onto a necklace to fit my new theme. The orange slices are made from foam, felt, paint and a plastic orange construction vest I bought at a yard sale years ago and cut up. I cut circles from the plastic to make earrings, and I think they may be my favorite part of this outfit. While I was out today I noticed that while my shadow was dark, the shadows cast by my earrings were orange. (I loved this.)

The plastic is translucent, and orange slices are, too. Have you ever held up a slice of orange to the sun. You haven’t? You should! If you do, you’ll notice that sunlight shines through the orange. I took a photo of the earrings in our orange tree so you could see how the sun shines through them.

Oranges: they taste good, and are cheerfully bright, and are good for you. And when I wear fruit symbols, it automatically gives an outfit a playful feel.

Want to know a few facts about oranges? Oranges are the largest citrus crop in the World. They originated in Southeast Asia in approximately 4000 B.C. Oranges are actually modified hesperidia berries.

Anybody craving vitamin C yet?