Trump meme - The Fool Tarot

 

Trump Meme - Plato knew part 2

Plato knew whats up

Let's get organized in 2015 !

 I love a clean and organized house, I love having only as much stuff as I need around me..

but somehow, especially in January, I always find myself amids a messy and dusty house

 filled with all sorts of stuff that is only cluttering up my space.

So, January again..time to get cracking and clean that house!

My problem is that I find Pinterest, DevianArt, Facebook..you name it.. 

a lot more interesting then cleaning up all the mess around me.

To give myself a bit of a guidance where to start tackling the mess I made a printable chart

 of which room to clean on what day, a weekly cleaning chart so to say.

 That way, if you slack off for a while, you can just pick right up again

 and have a clean(ish) house again in a week.

Feel free to print out my chart and use it to your advantage in the war against dust and clutter!

I will add some useful links and ideas that I come across that will be helpful on the road to getting super-organized ect..one has to have dreams no? :)

Good luck!

click here to download .pdf

Your road map to get organized:

1. Be realistic! 
Don’t try to get it all done in one day, 30 minutes every day will get the job done too.
Don't beat yourself up because you haven't been cleaning or decluttering, it's never to late to start.
You are researching how to be the boss over the mess right now, so be proud of yourself!

2. Do it for yourself.
Don't try to impress anyone but you. Not the neighbors, not the family - you.
Don't mind living in a mess? Just give it a try and see if you feel differently about yourself.
I have found for myself that a clean surrounding gives me inner peace, the more organized
 my surrounding is the more organized and balanced do I feel myself.
That's just me though,  give it a shot and see if you feel any different about yourself too.
If not don't worry, clutter and mess is like a boomerang, it will be back soon enough again 8D

 3. Don’t procrastinate - just do it, now!
  Start with 15 minutes today and then be proud of yourself that you made a start!

4. Create a starter zone!
Clean one area of any clutter and mess - your desk, your table, the kitchen counter
or your couch area in the living room. Start small, just this zone!
There is one rule: nothing can be placed here that doesn't belong in this zone!
If you use the table, de-mess it afterwards right away! If you place a coffee mug on your desk, 
clean it away when you leave the area!
 Keep this zone tidy and decluttered and celebrate this zone! :))

5. Three Boxes and a bag!
 Get yourself three boxes, plastic or cardboard, it doesn't matter, but big enough to hold some stuff, and a trash bag. 
If you don't have boxes don't put it off until you have some! (don´t procrastinate, remember? )
Just get bags instead.
Take the boxes and the trash bag to the area you want to declutter. 
The boxes are for the following: 

    Box 1:  Stays in this room
                Box 2:  belongs in another room 
Box 3:  Sell/Give away
 

The trash bag is for everything that is broken, that is obvious trash 
or that you think no one will want.
Now start working in you declutter zone - pick up and item and make a decision! 
The first question you should ask yourself is: do I really need this?

For a lot of people this is an easy question but I personally know people who have a real problem with this. Parting with things can be a real problem, especially if something isn´t obviously broken or useless. But remember: these are only things, they don´t define who you are! Things never fulfill, they can be nice to have and make you somewhat content, they can be darn useful and fun, but they will never change the real you, 
change your persona or lift up your self-worth. 

Even more, they can become your enemy if you let them take over your house/life. 

So ask yourself: do I really need this? 

 If yes: 

does it stay in this room? -> Box 1does it belong in another room? -> Box 2
is it too nice to throw away but I don't really need it? ->Box 3

If no:
put it in the trash bag

Clean one area like this and then throw the trash away and try to clean out the boxes -
the sell/give away box might stay around for a while but try your best to get rid of the things in box three! Try to stick to items that people really would still like to have too,
those knitting magazines from the 80ies are probably not really useful to anyone anymore so bye bye 80ies!



6. Everything needs a home!
 Give everything in your house a "home", a fixed place where it should go, where you store it, where it can live a happy life. If you catch it somewhere else return it to its home! End homelessness in your house!


7. Never go empty handed!
 If you have to go somewhere in the house - from the living room to the kitchen, from the bedroom to the bathroom, from the kitchen to the study - quickly look around you and check if there is anything that needs to go to that room (or towards that general area). If so take it with you! You're running around the house all day anyway
so you might as well clean up while doing so!


8. Have a "needs to go upstairs" box near the stairs
(but not on the stairs for safety reasons)

Next to my stairs I have a wooden crate where I put everything from downstairs that needs to go upstairs. If you go upstairs or catch a family member on the way up ask them to take something from the box to the room they are going to! It doesn't take any effort at all to quickly check the box but it will make your life so much more easy!

9. Develop rituals! 
  Two rituals that I try to nurture are making my bed in the morning and always clean out and polish my kitchen sink in the evening. Two small things but for me they make a big difference - they make me feel somewhat in control and make me happy in the morning when I see my shiny kitchen sink and happy in the evening when I see my nicely made bed. By the way, not making your bed so the dust mites have a hard life might be true, but by the time I'm done in the bathroom and got dressed at least 15 minutes have passed, plenty of time for a messed up bed to air.
Before I got downstairs I can savely make my bed.


Neat ideas:

Store your bed sheets in their own pillow cases

Idea from Martha Stewart

Polymer Clay Christmas - Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Craftmas Christmas everyone!

I wish you all a very merry christmas, stay crafty and healthy! 

 xoxo 

Steffi

the tutorial for the cupcakes can be found here !

Review: Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibition Rotterdam

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier

                    From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

 

  

I had the most amazing day today at the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition in Rotterdam and would like to share some impressions with you.

Upon arriving in Rotterdam we couldn't help but notice the reference to JPG everywhere, and I loved every second of it! How amazing are these gaultiered trees?!

 

from the exhibition: 
"The exhibition's various sections provide a thematic approach to the world of Jean Paul Gaultier, tracing the influences, from the streets of Paris to the world of science fiction, that have shaped the couturier's creative development. Holding up a mirror to the society that has marked his times, this exhibition, which Gaultier considers his "biggest show ever," is punctuated by many excerpts from videos, some of them previously unreleased, as well as many never-before-exhibited prints from the greatest names in fashion and art photography, including Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Robert Doisneau, Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Pierre et Gilles, Mario Testino, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Ellen von Unwerth and Bettina Rheims, to name just a few." 


The exhibition started with the Odyssey Room. We got to see the most stunning, magical, pearl-encrusted Haute Couture designs I had ever seen from close up, you could really get your nose close to those stunning creations to get a good look at all the details on the dresses. The mannequins were equally fascinating and eery, their faces were projected on and were animated.
They looked amazingly real and were really looking at you, smiling, winking, raising their eyebrows at you and some were even talking.

The first seven dresses were from the Virgins (of Madonnas) collection,
worn by mannequins that were all together singing an entrancing song.

 

dress Ex-voto, haute couture spring/summer 2007

dress Auréole, haute couture spring/summer 2007

"Regulated by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, haute couture is shown exclusively in Paris. Couture houses must comply with very specific requirements regarding how garments are made, presented and sold. Unlike industrially produced prêt-à-porter, couture is a fine craft whose one-of-a-kind objects are the product of exceptional technical virtuosity. Creating certain designs sometimes necessitates hundreds of hours of work. Everything involved in a couture garment-from embroidery and lace to accessories and the final finishing touches-must be entirely accomplished by hand. Even though it receives a great deal of media attention, rarely is the general public afforded a direct experience of haute couture."

dress Dolorés, haute couture spring/summer 2007

 dress Apparitions, haute couture spring/summer 2007

 dress Immaculata,  
 haute couture spring/summer 2007

 takes crochet work to a whole new level...

Kylie Minogue wores this dress in her "Like a Drug" video.

 

 

dress Guadalupe, haute couture spring/summer 2007

This is the first dress that Jean Paul Gaultier made in the summer of 1971.

dress from the Russia collection, haute couture fall/winter 1997-1998

 

We then got to see the beautiful Mermaids collection.

 weddingdress La Mariée, haute couture spring/summer 2008

dress La Bal des sirénes, haute couture spring/summer 2008

Jean Paul Gaultier himself (well, his mannequin self) told us about his Odyssey; from seeing a pink satin corset in his grandmothers house to then designing a corset for his teddy bear, Nana, out of newspaper and using his grandmothers make up on Nana for that model glamour look - a designer was born.

We then got to see his signature nautical designs - yay for stripes!

Tribute To Africa collection,  Haute couture spring/summer 2005

 Romantic India collection, Lascar dress, Haute couture spring/summer 2000
worn by Caroline van Monacoin 2000

 

House of Pleasures collection, men’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1997

Boy Toy collection, men’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1984

Pin-Up Boys collection, men’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1996

 Sleepy Hollow collection, woman’s prêt-à-porter fall/winter 2006-2007

Ze Parisienne collection, ensemble Bateau-Lavoir, haute couture spring/summer 2002

    “It all started when I found my grandmother’s corset”

     - Jean Paul Gaultier -

 

The second room was The Boudoir, and we dove into a world of corsets and other gowns of the night, including the famous corsets worn by Madonna on her Blond Ambition World Tour.

And we got to see Nana, the beginning of all evil  fun!

 

Barbès collection, women’s prêt-à-porter fall/winter 1984 – 1985

"Brought up by strong women, the couturier does not subscribe to the myth of the weaker sex. With derisive humor, he reinterprets the signs of the imprisoned female body. The hoops or cage crinolines of the nineteenth century symbolically confined women to their roles as wives and mothers, while the corsets of those times served, among other things, to conceal an abdomen swollen by pregnancy—a sight then deemed indecent because of religious considerations. For his part, Jean Paul Gaultier has chosen to design a corset that instead emphasizes the fulfillment of the modern expectant mother. By reworking that garment, he has offered the attributes of womanliness to those denied them. The runway show for his Dada collection (spring/summer 1983) showcased the exaggerated breasts of totemic African fertility symbols, an assertion of women's power. He has also given men the opportunity to once again don corsets, as did the dandies and English military men of the nineteenth century, who wore them to improve their strength and endurance."

costume sketches from Gaultier for Madonna.

Around the World  in 168 Outfits collection, women’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1989

worn in black by Grace Jones 1989

 at the international Rock Awards in New York

 

  

 right: House of Pleasures collection, men’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1997, satin fan corset

 left: Dada collection, women’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1983,  his first corset dress, 

also worn by Dita von Teese  for Flaunt in 2003.

"Brought up by strong women, the couturier does not subscribe to the myth of the weaker sex. With derisive humor, he reinterprets the signs of the imprisoned female body. The hoops or cage crinolines of the nineteenth century symbolically confined women to their roles as wives and mothers, while the corsets of those times served, among other things, to conceal an abdomen swollen by pregnancy—a sight then deemed indecent because of religious considerations. For his part, Jean Paul Gaultier has chosen to design a corset that instead emphasizes the fulfillment of the modern expectant mother. By reworking that garment, he has offered the attributes of womanliness to those denied them. The runway show for his Dada collection (spring/summer 1983) showcased the exaggerated breasts of totemic African fertility symbols, an assertion of women's power. He has also given men the opportunity to once again don corsets, as did the dandies and English military men of the nineteenth century, who wore them to improve their strength and endurance."

Tribute to Africa collection, bustier Ashanti, Haute couture spring/summer 2005,
made fom chiffon and woven straw!

 Tattoos collection, women’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1994

Mexico collection, bodysuit Teotihuacan, Haute couture spring/summer 2010

 

3-D leather cage corset, worn by Madonna on her 2012 MDNA World Tour

  

The Next room, Skin Deep,  pays tribute to Gaultiers fascination with the human body and he goes to town an all conventions, playing with the roles of the genders, and pushing boundaries all over the place.  A feast for the eyes, bathed in red light.

 

bodystocking worn by Mylène Farmer on her No.5 Tour in 2009

"For Jean Paul Gaultier, skin and body are inexhaustible sources of inspiration. In his hands, materials become "second skins." With prints of flayed or tattooed bodies, he explores the possibilities of trompe l'oeil. His fascination with skin feeds his imagination and guides his at once romantic and fetishistic designs."

Morphing collection

Parisiennes collection, worn by Dita Von Teese during Gaultiers fashion show

 left: Ze parisienne collection, dress French Cancan, Haute couture spring/summer 2002,

worn by Carla Bruni during the fashion show

  

 Ze parisienne collection, Haute couture spring/summer 2002

  right: collection Puppets, prêt-à-porter fall/winter 2004-2005

left: collection Gaultier Classic Revisited, women's prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1993,

worn by Naomi Campbell for a Paolo Roversi picture

 costume worn by Madonna during her Confession Tour in 2006 

 left: Women Among Women collection, women's prêt-à-porter fall/winter 1989-1990

,

"In opposition to the rule of thin, he has offered the sensuality of plus sizes, and sent out a powerful message:

 Be yourself, no matter what nature has dealt you!"

On we went to the next room titled 

Punk CanCan,

 it being a mixture of British Punk meets Paris Chic meets extremely cool denim outfits.

"Traveling to London in the early 1970s, he got his first look at the styles adopted by the punks of Trafalgar Square, whose alternative artistry would stimulate new aesthetic codes. Punk's antimaterialist principles would have an influence on the designer, enabling him to explore a nonconformist fashion. He found inspiration and new materials in the energy of London's streets, Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren's SEX boutique and, with David Bowie and his alter ego Ziggy Stardust at its head, the glam rock movement. A couturier with a punk soul, he adopted the concepts of recycling and the offbeat, penury forcing him to be inventive. The total rebellion, the trash, "destroy" look appealed to him: "…the raw side of punk, with its Mohawk haircuts, almost tribal makeup, allusions to sex, torn fishnet stockings, black, kilts, bondage straps, mixing of genders and materials—all that spoke to me, suiting me much better than some of the ossified conventions of the couture." 

 

"Jean Paul Gaultier was born in the suburbs of Paris, but his heart beats to the rhythm of both rough-and-ready Paris and rock-attitude London. He is fascinated by the Paris of the Belle Époque and the interwar years, the Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec and the Moulin Rouge, the colorful throngs crowding the streets of the Barbès area and, of course, the Eiffel Tower. He loves the postcard Paris that calls to mind the Parisians in Brassaï photographs, the denizens of the city's bistros and cabarets. These many visions of Paris set the scene for the multifaceted character whom Jean Paul Gaultier unflaggingly pays court to: the Parisienne." 

The next room was called Urban Jungle, the accompanying text to this part of the exhibition called it also "Planet Gaultier", which I found very fitting. We got taken on a trip around the world Gaultier style, so amazing!

"Fascinated by differences, Jean Paul Gaultier sees stylistic hunting grounds in those realms untouched by the hallowed halls of fashion. Transposing, reappropriating and assembling, he gives shape to transborder crossfertilization. Societies and individuals separated by language, custom and geography merge into a world whose passports proclaim "Planet Gaultier." Through his designs, the couturier orchestrates an intercultural dialogue."

 

 

The last part of the exhibition, called Metropolis, pays homage to the world of film, tv, pop culture and multimedia. 

"Beginning in the late 1970s, Gaultier borrowed from the realms of science fiction and the emerging sounds of new wave and house music. He stayed ahead of the fashion pack by introducing high-tech materials such as vinyl, lycra and neoprene to prêt-à-porter, and by creating innovative blends, such as neoprene-coated leather, as well as 3-D and even inflatable fabrics!"

"As a child during the television era, fascinated by movies and variety shows, Jean Paul Gaultier absorbed culture through the lens of the small screen. Fashion interested him only insofar as he could turn it into spectacle. He saw runway shows as happenings, trips to special worlds of his devising, with their own original soundtracks, decors and unusual casting choices. As the co-host of the program Eurotrash, he was the first fashion designer to become a television star. That new status as a media darling coincided with the rise of fashion as a powerful form of expression in an image-obsessed society."

 "His futuristic vision of fashion has also been reflected in his memorable collaborations with stars of

the pop and rock world, who wear his designs on stage or in their videos. Many music artists have availed themselves of his talent for setting trends: Tina Turner, Nirvana, Lady Gaga, Les Rita Mitsouko, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Niagara, Neneh Cherry, Depeche Mode, Beyoncé, Yvette Horner, Mylène Farmer, Boy George, Cameo, Kylie Minogue and, of course, Madonna."

 

Conclution: This exhibition is a feast for the eyes and the senses, I can only recommend it to everyone even if you are only slightly interested in fashion. The amazing designs, the colors, the sparkles, the mood of the different rooms, down to the talking, moving mannequins are totally worth a trip. 

And the coolest thing of all, Jean Paul Gaultier is a self taught artist! How cool is that? 

It gives me so much inspiration to just go with what I like and enjoy.

The exhibition will still be in the Kunsthal Rotterdam until the 12th of may, it will then move on to Montreal from 15 June - 22 September 2013, so for us euros, go there while it is still in the area! ;)