secretary of the arts

i came across an amazing news story this morning that i can't wait to share with everyone!
apparently mr. quincy jones, a man that wears many hats in the music biz, has asked obama about appointing a secretary of the arts, a cabinet-level position that would be the head of our cultural development.

i am so excited about the possibility of this position because of the potential there could be for the american public to gain more understanding about the arts/fine art, and for there to be better representation for the arts in our schools and the country in general.
many other countries have ministers of the arts, cultural secretaries, and the like. (most of which i imagine are in europe, and we know how much they love and support the arts.)

photo by me!

so if you're excited about this position also, what can you do about it?
there happens to be an online petition on the matter, which has about 111,585 supporters so far.
if you do support this, share the petition with everyone!
i'm not 100% sure how legit it is, but with that many people i'm pretty sure.
it can't hurt, anyway.

what do you think about having a secretary of the arts?

inspiration: weird knits, and lots of links

i love crafts, don't you? there's something very calming and centering about the process of them.

i was looking around online the other day for some different knitting and crocheting techniques i wanted to try, and i stumbled across some really awesome (and weird) stuff!

first off, i saw this awesome hat on castoff, and i wanted to try to figure out how to do this loopy stitch.

so i googled for a while and found this page which shows you how to knit loopy, and this page that shows how to crochet loopy. so, whichever one you choose, you too can make this awesome stitch! once i'm done with all of my christmas knits, i might have to start on this!

then i stumbled upon pick me!, which features a lot of different kinds of knits, but one that particularly grabbed my attention. recycled plastic bag knitting! yeah, for real!
here's some examples of great things to knit/crochet out of plastic bags:

of course, anything knitted that you can think of you could use this plastic bag technique for! a quick search on google, and you'll find knitted plastic bag jewelry, bags, shoes, and even sculptures. it's really quite amazing!
here are some links to get you started, and some links just for cool knits!

• marlo's crochet corner - tutorial on how to make plastic bags into "yarn"
  
• how to make your own crocheted plastic bag shoes
• how to make your own sexy hamburger costume
• yokoo's etsy shop - she has the most amazing style
  
• microrevolt - a sweet knitting community that also has their own pattern generator
• knitting pattern central - a huge database of completely free knitting patterns
• crochet pattern central - you get the idea
  

if you have any other questions, suggestions for posts, or just general comments about my blog, i'd love to hear what you have to say! please leave me a comment! have a fabulous weekend!