Snag It! Half for Haiti at Explosive Kiwi

The earthquake(s) in Haiti have caused much more devastation than I can grasp, curled up in my warm bed in a beautiful apartment in one of the world's richest cities. And even though I texted 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross effort, I just don't feel like that's enough.

So for the next month Explosive Kiwi will be doing something I'm calling "Half for Haiti": Buy any item in our Etsy shop marked with our Half for Haiti logo and 50% of your payment will be donated to the Red Cross, specifically their Haiti Relief and Development efforts. We'll keep a running tally on our Twitter (@explosivekiwi) and in the shop.

Here's a roundup of the first few items:

• Ginger Purse, $28
• Chancellor Purse, $32
• Princess Purse, $28
  

And please check the shop every few days, as several items will be posted throughout the weeks.

Yarn Porn

I love food, and I LOVE great food photography. There's nothing that makes the tongue water more than beautifully photographed food: macaroni and cheese with a lightly browned crust sitting in a ceramic dish and a spoon pulling a string of gooey cheese, or single-serve blackberry slump pouring out of its glass topped with melting vanilla ice cream. It's called food porn, and recently I realized there also exists yarn porn.

I've seen tons of knitting blogs with some beautiful photography, and they make me want to reach out and touch the yarn (yes, sometimes in a creepy way). I love when photographers carefully set a mood, choose yarn colors, and thoughtfully arrange the skeins in their shots.


In building up my stash of yarn porn, I've begun a gallery on flickr for what I think are great yarn shots. If you see any along the way, shoot me a link and I'll add it to the collection. In the meantime, view the inaugural gallery here.

Photo above: "Yummy yarn spaghetti" by The Dreaming Press

Swooning Over: Bang-Bang in "The Brothers Bloom"

A month or so ago I saw the rather under-hyped movie "Brothers Bloom" and was immediately smitten: a whimsical story + beautiful locations + a great cast + enlightened art direction + spot-on costume design. Within that last ingredient lies my favorite character, Bang-Bang, the impeccably dressed explosives expert.

As the above pictures shows, her costume palette is pretty traditional, with the creme adding a bit of depth. The subtle details in the costuming are what make each look, many of them too small to notice in the above pic. From luxurious (the Chanel half-tinted sunglasses and the red piping on the creme suit) to the casual (a black bowler hat paired with a fur jacket and the canvas Converse sneaks), each look is so rich but seems so effortless.

One of my favorite items of Bang-Bang's is the half-tinted Chanel sunglasses, and it's been a hunt to try to find myself a good-looking fake. The real ones are discontinued and were $300+ (!!!). For the non-baller, like myself, looking for a good looking fake got easier when Mrs. Lilien helpfully exposed them on her site (plus a link to snag your own pair).

I'm now determined to imitate the great Bang-Bang with my own half-tinted sunglasses. YOU should consider doing the same, but only after you've curled up with some popcorn and the movie "The Brothers Bloom".

Audrey Kawasaki's "Hajimari - a prelude"

Though my love for Audrey Kawasaki knows no bounds, my inability to grasp the concept of a calendar overpowers that love, leading to bad things. The most recent bad thing? Missing Ms. Kawasaki's show, Hajimari - a prelude" at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.



Fortunately for me, wonderful people like Matt Sung understand how to use calendars, made it out to the show, AND documented it for unlucky people such as myself. Check out his article for more info, or his flickr set for more pics from the show.

From what I can gather, Ms. Kawasaki keeps evolving her representation of sexualized, feminine youth. Lots of her figures are now found in environments or contexts, instead of just imagined shapes and forms. Her use of (what looks like) color stains or tints continues to amaze and, per the usual, subtly highlights the wood grain she paints on. And of course, her style of illustration is soft and often dreamy, easily endearing itself to the onlooker.

Check out Mr. Sung's article and flickr page for more about "Hajimari" and benefit from people who know how to make it to gallery shows in time.

A Christmas DupliCowl, complete!

Late into the night before Christmas Eve, I finished knitting, casting off, and frantically sewing together the knit tube that ended up transforming into a finished, beautiful Christmas DupliCowl!

The whole thing ended up being a whopping 12" x 15", which means it can be pulled further up on the face when it's extra cold out. Not that that matters much, as the double-lining on this baby alpaca cowl ends up making it feel like a little oven around your neck.

I'm super excited about it, and more importantly, so is Zach, who premiered it in chilly upstate NY (which was between 10 and 40 degrees at any given moment this past week). And I plan on stealing it quite often, so this winter will (hopefully) be a little warmer this time around.

To read how the Christmas DupliCowl came about, read the previous post.

Pantone Color of the Year 2010

If you've ever perused my collection of favorite color chips, gotten a peek at my bedroom color scheme, or even checked out my Twitter page, you would know that Pantone just recently validated my sense of color with their pick for Color of the Year:

That's right, ladies and gents, Pantone chose Turquoise (otherwise known as 3258 C to true color nerds), as this year's official color. Though their site spouts a whole lot of nonsense concerning what Turquoise means, for ME it means delightful pops of color across most media, unusual color combinations in unexpected places, and a free pass to use the color on and in everything!

So here's to Turquoise (major upgrade from Pantone's pick for last year, Mimosa) and to the new year! May 2010 kick 2009's ass!

1. "Untitled" by i.Anton 2. "{89/365} Macaron Monday" by Run Mia Run 3. "Afterhour" by Andy Julia 4. Caramel Swag Booties, Anthropologie 5. Cielo necklace, Need Supply Co.