Boxes!!

Lately I've been working some on Katastrophic's branding. If only I could hire someone to design it all for me... BUT when you don't have money to buy fancy things, it's amazing what a few crafty supplies can amount to. And now Katastrophic underwear has new packaging... made entirely by hand from paper, puffy paint, typewriting, glitter, and origami!

Here is a pile of prototypes and a pretty good picture of what my work desk usually looks like:

Here is the box that made the final cut:
(I have to admit, I did impress myself with this one. I was beginning to feel like a loser for doing origami and puffy paint for 2 days...)

And now for a gratuitous dose of pure cuteness: this is how Peanut and I deal with living in a cold little house.

Stay warm, friends!

Lace for the new collection is on it's way!

I spent a good amount of time this week researching lace suppliers to source lace for my new collections. I was about to try to start ordering lace from a giant factory supplier in China because it's almost impossible to find anything else. I felt a little bad about just buying the normal kind of factory mass produce lace at cheap prices, but I decided it was good enough to be using ethically sourced fabric. When I told JR he pooped on my party and told me I shouldn't be making a compromise like that. So I started looking around a little more and pretty quickly this is what I found:
Eurolaces.

Laces made from %100 organic cotton, and even the manufacturing process involves no chemicals.

My order is shipping from Europe today or tomorrow, and I can't wait to get it!

Why you should buy organic cotton.

If you follow my fashiony creations at all, you probably know I use pretty nearly only organic cotton fabric. One thing I never do is buy new non-organic cotton to use in my studio. For some reason organic-loving people seem to be thought of as either overly-earthy people who wear comfy green, brown, mustard, and terracotta clothing with no underwear. They are usually yoga instructors. While this (maybe unfairly stereotyped) little section of humans may have been the first to really attach to the idea of eating and wearing organic things, it's arrogant and prejudiced to turn up your nose at something that actually affects every person on the planet in serious ways.

When I was trying to come up with my shoot-you-in-the-eye reasons for supporting the organic cotton industry I realized I've read and heard a lot without ever trying to really memorize the main facts of the issue. After doing a little research I came across the Organic Trade Association's website, and it has an incredibly eye-opening list of facts about the whole cotton industry that are pretty hard to stomach. For example,

"Cotton is considered the world's 'dirtiest' crop due to its heavy use of insecticides, the most hazardous pesticide to human and animal health. Cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop (1)."

Why try?

I'm hitting the age where it's way too easy to kind of forget about the things you want to change in the world, and instead spend most of your energy just trying to keep things together: pay bills, buy nice clothes, rent movies so you don't get bored and sad at night, keep yourself and your belongings insured, think about buying a house, get new tires on the car, clean the house, cook good meals, maybe get a better paying job...

it's all crap. At least that's what I would have said 4 years ago when I was still in college.