This photo made me oddly happy when I saw it:

Picture from Yoko Ono's web site

John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono; George Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison; Stella McCartney, daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney and the late Linda Eastman McCartney; and Barbara Bach Starkey,
the wife of Ringo Starr

Last night in New York, the three Beatle wives presented designer Stella McCartney an award as one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year 2009 for her fashion label and her commitment to animal rights.

Tom and I have been gradually giving The Compound's main residence a thorough cleaning over the past two or three weeks. I knew Greg was coming for his signing this past weekend, and my sister was hoping to visit Bobo Butterbean with her dog Harley at Thanksgiving. I wanted everything to be in order before their arrivals.

I THOUGHT I'd taken care of all the dust. But then Tim's boss dropped by to do an inspection, and you can see by her expression that I missed a spot. The Big H is so relentless about these things.

On the most recent episode of Lifetime's Project Runway, the designers were taken to the Getty Center in Los Angeles. They were given a tour of the J. Paul Getty Museum as well as the center's grounds. The designers were then asked to create a look inspired by any part of the center, including paintings, sculpture, and furniture from the museum's collections, architectural features of the building, or the center's breathtaking views.

As much as I wanted to jet to Los Angeles and go to the Getty Museum (which opened since my last trip to California, or Jim would have taken me there), I could only look at its collections online. I'd almost decided to work from one of my favorite paintings by Raphael when I saw this wonderful mid-1720s pastel from Italian artist Rosalba Carriera.

A Muse
Pastel on blue paper

From the Getty web site: Famous throughout Europe for her portraits and teste di fantasia (fanciful renderings of beautiful women in allegorical or mythological guise), Rosalba Carriera made the pastel, above, at the ducal court in Modena, Italy.

I'm always talking about my muses, and Carriera's painting provided another one. I was inspired by the leaves in the woman's hair, the ethereal fabric of her bodice, and the colors. I wanted to create a very feminine portrayal of nature's beauty. Did I succeed?

( Please click here to see. )

I haven't been taking enough photos lately.

I don't know how fashion photographers do it. Even when your models are dolls, they're hard to photograph in a group. You know nobody will have her eyes closed, or be making a weird face, or sneeze, but during this shoot, I had several hair disasters, a couple of models who insisted on falling over (if they were real, I'd be wondering, poor nutrition? substance abuse?), and two bracelets broke and had to be repaired. Then I thought I had them all posed the same, and only after I saw the photos did I realize a hand is misplaced here, the legs aren't the same there--even plastic models are a pain! Of course, most photographers have assistants to take care of the details, and I only had Margot and Guinness. While they offer loads of moral support, they can't ensure that no model has a stray hair in front of her face.

Here are the Birthstone Barbies I used for my Halloween shoot in order of the months of the year. I combed out the ridiculous curls Mattel gives the dolls and put them all in black body suits that I sewed for them. (I like the way the models on Project Runway look so uniform in their black slips; this is my version of that.)

Patricia, Katie, Dandy, Natalie, Tajma, Toni,
Olivia, Emily, Sarah, Gina, Lily, Ava

If you click here, you can see an embiggened version. Lisa asked the other day how I remember their names, and the easiest answer, for these twelve and the thirteen Top Models I own, is that I give them names that mean something to me, and once named, they become characters. Their characters aren't fully developed with storylines, but every name has a few details connected to it, and enough of them are named for real people to make those connections more memorable to me.

I had the greatest conversation in Jo-Ann Fabrics with a four-year-old boy the other day who was just dumbfounded that I had a doll with me and NO DAUGHTER. That's YOUR doll? You PLAY with it? And though I assured him that I don't play with her, just dress her, I did realize later that in a way, I do "play" with the dolls, and that my year of not writing hasn't really been that at all. The writing is going on in my head as I make stories to match these dolls and their fashions.

I've stopped feeling guilty about all the e-mail that's come to me and Timothy James Beck this year about what's next, when another book will be out. In ten years, I've written or partially written nine published novels, gotten a couple of short stories into print, written some unpublished poetry, co-edited an anthology, and edited or copy edited several writers' novels and short stories. I've come to understand that it's okay--even necessary--for a writer to take a break. One thing this break has allowed me to do is to read novels in wide-ranging genres. While I've enjoyed all this reading, I've found that I still don't want to "write one like Author X." I can only write what I write. But I haven't retired. I don't have writer's block. I'll write when the next story is ready to be told. I assume Timothy James Beck will, too.

That's the most honest answer I can give.

We've recently switched our thermostat from air conditioning to heat. A couple of times since, I've heard this odd, part musical, part moaning sound late at night and tried to determine if it's coming from the furnace.

In looking through my photos, I found one of several stuffed owls (cropped to a single owl in the above photo). It occurred to me that maybe what I'm hearing is an owl. Tom said he's seen one recently near The Compound. Of course, now that I want to hear the noise, I haven't heard a damn thing.

This window display reminded me of another book I think might be interesting: The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse. Because, as certain characters in a novel called The Deal could tell you, mocking bad poetry is a good time.

On the most recent episode of Lifetime's Project Runway, the contestants were asked to create a companion piece for one of their own designs rated highest by the judges. Since I'm not competing with anyone on LJ Runway Monday, I asked my LJ, FB, and Twitter friends to vote on their favorite of my designs from this season. Though it was a dead heat between three looks for a while, my Lights, Camera, Sew! design in Episode 6 finally pulled ahead (although not because one of you voted for it three times!).

If you recall, for that challenge, my model Maggie was cast in a movie in which she time travels between current-day Manhattan and the European village of a late-nineteenth century Roma family who befriends her. During her adventures, she finds true love--though only the end of the movie reveals whether he lives during this century or a previous one.


What's one way to end a romantic comedy? A wedding, of course! Though I had planned to create a wedding dress as part of my final collection, I decided to let Maggie's look inspire one that in this challenge will be worn by her stunt double, Kikki. Some of you may remember Kikki as the fabulous Figaro de la Fontaine's identical twin cousin. Figaro (on the right in this photo) was the featured model last season of Mark G. Harris, a reference that's appropriate. I was inspired by his use of color for the wedding dress in his final collection. I was also inspired by designer Timothy J. Lambert's fashion-forward bow for one of Nikki's designs from last season.

Figaro in MGH's wedding gown. Nikki in TJL's evening gown.

So... Is any of this look MINE? Oh, I think you'll agree that it is.

( If you click, here comes the bride. )

Apparently, for me, Halloween was all about the tricks. I tried for hours to upload my Halloween photo set to Flickr--a photo set I've been working on for several weeks just for the holiday, including costuming and setting--with help from Tom on enhancements to The Compound.

Belatedly, from our coven to yours:

Happy Halloween!

If you're interested in a closer look at the models, including all twelve Birthstone Barbies, four horses, a banshee, and representations of Greg Herren, Famous Author Rob Byrnes, Timothy J. Lambert, and me--or as we affectionately call each other: Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death--the full set may be here, depending on the whims of Flickr and Live Journal.

Sorry for being late.

On tonight's episode of Project Runway, the contestants had to design a companion piece to go with one of their winning looks. Since I'm not competing, I don't have a challenge winner to go by. I'm putting photos of each of my designs from this season behind a cut. Please choose the number of your favorite and put it in a comment. The look that gets the most votes will be the one I use as the companion for my next design. Comments are screened, so you won't see any else's votes, and my LJ DOES accept anonymous comments, so you don't have to have a LJ account.

THANKS.

( Please click here for small photos of my previous designs. )

Thanks for lunch! And, er, what were we just saying about the need to stay vigilant?