Sleepers' Dreams

While the mortgage meltdown has forced many families to abandon their homes and their dreams, I find this particular story particularly heartbreaking. The Sleepers of Festus, Missouri took the concept of a "dream house" to quite a different level. After buying a cave on ebay, the Sleepers, huh, what's that? Oh, yes, they bought a cave. On ebay. They bought a cave on ebay, and lived in a tent in the cave for five years while they designed and built a house to go in the cave. This photo collection shows just how much blood (beware the surprise picture of a nail gun injury), sweat, and tears they personally put into building the house.

The Sleepers built the house mostly with their own labor, including a lot of help from their kids. I don't think anyone in 21st century America, besides the Amish, is this involved in the design and building of their own home. And I applaud their anti-coddling of their offspring. How many parents today would let their kids within ten feet of a floor sander or a scissor lift?

Sadly, the balloon in their mortgage came at the same time as the bust of the economy, leaving them unable to afford living in their labor of love. Completing the circle of life, they have put the house up on ebay. They are trying to find a buyer, or a financier, or some sort of happy ending. Hopefully someone will come to their rescue and let them keep living the dream.

Whorange You Glad You Remembered Whorange?

Looking through a long-abandoned to-do list, I saw Whorange. I had totally forgotten about Whorange! I somehow stumbled across her blog months and months ago, and made a note of it because I loved it, and I never went back. Now I'm so glad I did because she has the most interesting posts. Most design blogs have significant overlap, and I often feel like I've seen it all before. Not so with Whorange. It's all fresh, all new, all Whorange. It's so much fun too. Even though I'm not a big fan of the color orange, and she seems to have more of a committment to brightness than I could ever get on board with, I love the name, I love the eye candy, I love the personality. She's going on the list.

Speaking of the list, I fear I may need to begin a cruel game of "Survivor: Google RSS Feed Reader." At 72 sites and counting, I may have overestimated my daily capacity for intake of new info, forcing my brain into overload, and giving me tension headaches from too much read-scroll-read-click-scroll-click-read-scroll-click. But what to cut? My fun Fark headlines? My gooey Gawker goodness? My Limey Londonist lowdown? I don't want to miss out on anything, but I don't want my brain to pop either. For now, I'm putting all of my blogs on notice. No one is immune. A girl can only take so much.

For the Love of Jasperware

My obsession with Wedgwood Jasperware started a few years back when I saw these candlesticks in a client's apartment. While I had seen Jasperware many times before, I was now deeply in love.

On a trip to London last March, I attempted to find some of this red Jasperware to make my own, but quickly realized this was not to be. Upon asking a dealer if he had in his tiny, Wedgwood-packed stall, any red Jasperware, he replied, in his most proper British accent, "You MUST be joking!" He went on to chastise me for calling it "red" rather than "crimson" and told me that, due to the difficulty in manufacturing it, it is one of the rarest Jasperware colors. Other than the obvious disappointment of not finding what I came for, this ridiculous exchange was one of the highlights of the trip. Another highlight was the cameo above, which I purchased from an adorable couple who gave me a thorough lesson on the origins and manufacture of Jasperware. I turned it into a pendant with some findings from Metaliferous, and it is my favorite purchase ever!

Earlier this week, Architect Design posted his lovely collection of blue and white Wedgwood Jasperware, sending me, once again, on a Jasperware quest. I am determined to start a collection, so every few months I scour ebay and antiques dealers' sites searching for something to buy. I am drawn to the more unusual colors, putting the pieces I love well above my price range. Alas, I never actually go through with it, and my current "collection" remains the one cameo.

Yesterday on Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, I learned (from Diamond Geezer) that Darwin's legendary voyage may not have happened with out financial help from Josiah Wedgwood. Sadly, this historic company is in dire straits right now. If Wedgwood doesn't get bought out of bankruptcy soon, who knows how high prices would go for collectable pieces. I'd better get to work on that collection.