Fallen Leaf

Living in Los Angeles, it’s difficult to see the signs of autumn unless you drive north out of LA.  This photo was taken on a drive from San Jose, Cali’s Bay area.



California Autumn
by Jemma



Although I do appreciate the warm winters here and the fact that I do not have to shovel snow, I cannot help but miss the changing of the seasons and the Holiday spirit only felt in the Northeast. This Halloween week and to get myself in the mood, I’ve decided to watch one scary movie per night which began last Sunday. Our first movie pick was the classic “The Exorcist” and it included “the version you never seen before.” Ok, here’s some advice: if you plan on watching a scary movie marathon, DO NOT start with the scariest movie you have ever seen or at least, a movie with a scene of a girl walking down a staircase like a spider. And I blame myself because it was actually D’s first time watching the movie in its entirety, so he had no clue how scary it was.

I have been traumatized by that move ever since I watched it when I was much younger. I even dreaded turning 13 years old because that’s the age Reagan was when she got possessed. I’ve watched that movie numerous times and each time I’ve watched it, it never failed to give me nightmares for the next couple of days after.  This time, I figured that I’m older so there’s no way it can scare me like before. And since D and I have been dissecting the cinematography of almost every movie we see lately, I figured this was a perfect 1970’s flick to study.  Big joke on me, I sat there like I was nine years old again looking away from the screen as to not embed the picture of Reagan’s possessed face in my head. And it didn’t help that D would stop and rewind the scary parts in the film to watch it again.  That night I had a nightmare which woke me up in the middle of the night and gave me that” bothered” feeling the next day. Monday night’s horror movie was Halloween. Only I was sitting in the bedroom watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta because I still had that “bothered” feeling.  This movie marathon idea is not looking too good. But when I am ready, I ‘m going to take D’s advice and watch the Exorcist again with the director’s commentary for what D told me, it sounds pretty fascinating and makes it less frightening.

Tonight, we have not picked a movie, although I made sure to download all three Twilight films and occasionally mention how awesome these movies are to D. He’s been watching the first Twilight movie throughout the day and I’m hoping we’ll watch the Eclipse tonight…uh oh, wait a minute, he just told me that he got a copy of the new Paranormal Activity. How fabulous.

Ok, so on to some design thoughts of the day. Getting into sewing has really opened my eyes to textures and the ways things are put together. I learned about textures during first year in architect school but during that time my attention was more focused on what sorority I was planning to pledge. I noticed that lately I have been studying the textures of everything around me, my eyesight has become like the zoom-in lens on a camera. It’s pretty inspiring, actually, to really look at things which unfortunately many people do not. I’m guessing this is probably one of the reasons why the majority of people cannot see spirits. I’ve been thinking about some things I can make in the spirit of the holidays coming up, and since planning for Halloween seems a bit too late, my next move is Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago, my neighbor ordered some chef aprons for a cooking class she enrolled in. It was my first time I made those types of aprons but I couldn’t believe how easy it was to put them together. My plan is to design some chef aprons for the family cook planning to make Thanksgiving dinner with some design. I purchased a book about printing and screen printing by hand so I’m looking forward to seeing what designs I can come up with to paint on that cotton canvas fabric. I will be posting about these pretty soon.

My finishing words for today’s blog is for you, dear reader, to start “looking” and really “seeing” the things and objects around you. Like this leaf we just happen to see on the ground. This leaf may look ordinary, right?



Fallen Leaf
by Jemma



But when you pick it up, you’ll be amazed at what you will notice that you probably never noticed before. Because as a wise man once said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you can miss it.” …ok, ok, so what if the wise man was Ferris Bueller…



Leaf Skin and Veins
by Jemma



Enjoy your Tuesday :)