Colors

I picked up a couple of old copies of Benetton's Colors magazine . I got the Shopping for the Body issue you see above and also the War issue. I haven't posted any scans from the War issue yet because, to be honest, I have been shy of opening it. Justin looked at it when I first brought it home and and his reaction has frightened me a little bit. I will get up the courage soon though, especially if there's interest because neither of these issues are in the Colors archive. Please find below a few of my favorite bits from issue No. 18:

Can you read this one if you click on it? It seems if you strap the flesh of a potato to your knee it will swell....I hope I'm helping some nerd get out of gym class!

It makes your poop not smell. I'm not naming names, but I know someone who would like to get their hands on some of this. *ahem*

I want to say "only in America!" but I actually would expect this to come from Japan or China, and also I wouldn't have thought it to be from 1996. It seems so 'now', with all that antibacterial crap and general germaphobia these days.

The pink lipstick is actually a vibrator, the tiny bottle is skunk scent for hunters in the US, and  "email diamant" is a toothpaste that tints gums pink. Before there was Vice magazine, there was Colors!

Organic tampons from 1996 in the center, finger tape on the top left to relieve joint ache in fingers (ouch! looks painful), Pepee is supposedly used by pornstars in Japan to make their genitals glisten on camera, and the cotton pads in the blue box are supposed to enlarge breasts.

There were so many more things I could post pictures of that were great: the twig toothbrush, leaves for deodorant, black dirt toothpaste....plus ear cleaning tools and an electric tongue! On the cover is "Night Flower" a pubic wig from Japan. I should post the copy to that one, it's so good! 

My own toenail necklace of sorts....

A little project of organizing some trinkets last weekend....click image to enlarge

Shoes!

Finally, with the new camera I bought J for Christmas, here are the shoes I made this fall. I am also still working on a pair of sandals that I didn't finish in class.


These are my early sketches. I still wish I had spent more time searching out green & yellow leather, but my budget and time allotment did not intersect at a place where green and yellow leathers existed.



Once I bought my lasts and materials, and practiced my first pullovers, I sketched out what my final projects would look like. The bright pastel green pebbled leather interior of Kempton 2 is my favorite detail. Kempton 3 has a knitted patch on the front and is trimmed in wool. The name of my shoe styles come from the last, which says Kempton on it. Kempton is also the name of the town where my sister lives.



The final shoes! Kempton 3 is on the left, it has a wool sock liner & contrast brown insole. Kempton 2 on the right has contrasting tongue and quarters (brown & pink, hard to see in these pics). To make the bumpy toes I learned how to build up my last. The most difficult part for me was the sewing because I stubbornly refused to buy new needles and bobbin cases for the machines at school. So I wrestled with my domestic machine instead. Everything got sewn eventually, but looking back I wish I'd just spent the $20 or whatever.

Happy New Year!

I started a new tradition this New Year's Eve: the baking of a Vinegar Pie! It seemed like a great way to end the old year, partaking of something sour. We then followed up with something sweet (a chocolate cake) to ring in the new year.



My recipe for Vinegar Pie came from an old cookbook a friend showed me a few years ago (thanks Ken!). I thought it was such a strange recipe I jotted it down right away. But truthfully this recipe was universally declared disgusting! So instead of passing that one on, here's a link to a recipe I found on Instructables while I was trying to find out more about Vinegar Pie (the photo above is from this recipe, not mine—of course I forgot my camera!). I actually discovered very little about it in my research except that is an old American recipe, and that there are probably better versions out there than the one I used. So next year I'm going to try it again and see how it goes, much to my family's dismay I'm sure!