Filly

Needs

fillydesigns — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:32:08 +0000

I have a dilemma. I’m asking for help.

There are three rentable houses on the Riverside property. After a bit of work they will be ready to be lived in. The income from these three units pays the rent on the property.
There are three additional units that are not livable but once they are, the income from those spaces will fund needed improvements to the property. The only way I can make Riverside beautiful is by fixing up and renting the three outbuildings.
This is my dilemma. A viscous circle. How do I fix them up when I need their income to be able to fix them up?
I need to gather materials for free and learn how to build. I’m reaching out to household across the land- if you have any spare resources please let me know! Doors, windows, flooring, framing lumber, insulation, counter tops, wall paneling… old fence coming down? Shed, shelves, deck being replaced? I will work- I’m strong! Let my muscles be my money. Enough with this viscous circle, lets create a loving circle instead! I’ll help you, you help me, we’ll help Riverside and dance in the courtyard this summer.

Shopping Trip

fillydesigns — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:48:31 +0000

Wood. Wood wood wood. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Checking out a couple off-the-map salvage yards in Oakland and loving what I see.
Is it just me or does old wood make everyone cry?

Filly Foundation ll

fillydesigns — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:52:24 +0000

Oh this week! I have not had the opportunity to work at Riverside since Monday. It pains me. My sense of accomplishment rests solely on the back of that slice of land. Everything else is distraction.
And then there’s Filly. Like the women who wear her, she is a loving friend. She knows that I love her, knows that I will call as soon as I have a moment. I need to be careful not to take her for granted.
Yesterday Kevin and I made a day long trip to Oakland. I picked up fabric to be used for the next round of the Foundation Collection. The fabric had been per-washed and needed to be transported to the cutters. Hopefully production will begin next week. Styles will be in the shop mid July.

I’m really excited about the next round of Foundation. The Wonderful Dress will be available in linen and a jersey option. The Flute Pant will come in Stretch Twill (that great exercise-bra-like material from back in the day) and denim. The Salt Blouse, Flirting Dress and Safi Skirt will all make an appearance in new colors and fabrics. They’re good styles and deserve an extended life.
There’s something morally sound about looking at what you have and feeling content. Feeling satisfied.
We have it all.

Parachute Party Recruits for June

fillydesigns — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:01:11 +0000

Now accepting Parachute Party hosts in Portland and the Bay Area for June! Email me to sign up. emily@fillydesigns.com

There are two sets of Parachute boxes in rotation so multiple parties can happen at the same time. And what has been nice is one host passing the boxes off to the next host without them coming back to me. What a great opportunity to meet another cool lady. Because, believe me, you wearers of Filly could all be best friends. You’re down to earth, unpretentious, warm and kind. You’re naturally beautiful and active and comfortable in your body. You laugh easily. You eat well. You live your life in these clothes and improve them with grass stains and kid handprints and dirt smears. On you Filly fades and ages and becomes better and more beautiful, more rich, more loved.
If you haven’t hosted but want to try, I encourage you, with all the supportive mama energy I have, to give it a shot. Join our community.

Postmaster

fillydesigns — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:35:45 +0000

Yesterday was a wash in many regards.
It was an odd, missed day.
In the early morning I rolled with Kevin out to the dump on Dimeo Lane where tractors create dirt ramps up and down the mounds of buried garbage. I was struck by how similar it was to the truck and sand world I created and played with as a child. Dudes must love working there.
And that’s where the day essentially ended. I had Filly orders to ship and spent the remainder of the day waiting for FedEx to drop off inventory. I ate. Cleaned. Read. Paced. Drew flag ideas for Riverside. Checked and rechecked every possible interactive option on my phone a hundred times over. Slept. Until finally, at the end of the day they arrived and I flew into action in order to make the 6pm drop-off. Easy enough except that one order involved riding my slow creaking 3-speed over to the Westside to drop off and pick up a pair of Greta Pants.
To make a long story short, if you order Filly and you live in Santa Cruz I’ll pull up to your house on a bicycle, like an old fashioned French postmaster. I ring the bell on my bars upon arrival.

Small Finds

fillydesigns — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:16:27 +0000

I’m calling a hauler today. Charlie I believe his name is. There’s a humpback whale sized pile of trash in the courtyard looking for a new home. I’m tempted to ride with Charlie out to the dump. I’ve heard one can now sign a waiver and dig trough the wood pile. They also have free paint.
One thing, perhaps the only thing, not destined for the dump are the two photographs I found among the debris. I was shocked to discover how fully the digital age has crushed the old fashion photograph. And what a shame that is. There is nothing like a found photograph. Often of the worst variety-camera askew, one large hairline obscuring most of the view with two small waving kids behind, blurry. They can’t be beat. And whether or not it is warranted, found photographs instantly sum up the scene. They give you the idea that this is what mattered to the people that came before.
Thai food, cars, nostalgia.

Mothers Galore

fillydesigns — Sun, 12 May 2013 15:57:16 +0000

There are so many mothers. They’re everywhere today. Parks are speckled with mother themed picnics. The beach filled with colorful umbrellas to shade our celebrated matrons. Breakfast joints are exploding at the seams with all of those mothers inside. Everyone has a mother and, it seems more and more, everyone is now also a mother of somebody else. And mothers’ daughters become mothers and then those daughters become mothers! How do you split the day? It’s so tricky. Thankfully for my mom I’m still just a daughter so the line of command is crystal clear. I’m paying for sushi.

I don’t know why I don’t want kids. It is partially biological I’m sure. My cycle is sporadic and therefore does not remind me, every 30 days, of a lost opportunity. Maybe that is why having a baby never crosses my mind. It’s not even something I’ve decided against, I’ve just never thought seriously about it.
The closest I’ve come to motherhood was the time I “found” a lost baby and called my mom from the Jr High to report my score. But even at that age, when I hadn’t begun to consider how my life might veer off course, I didn’t resist when my Mom fairly shouted “Put It Back!”
I put it back and made my way home alone.

Day Labor

fillydesigns — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:01:43 +0000

I hit the Farmer’s Market while I was still presentable, bought fifteen pounds of Fava Beans, and then headed over to Riverside. Another day on site. Seagulls circled high overhead, their speech tamed by the distance. My speech tamed as well, buried deep inside a ventilated mask. I didn’t even bother or notice to take it off when visitors came by. But considering the number of visitors the mask served as social gate-keeper, limiting conversation and allowing me to keep working. Plus I looked serious.
Tackled the mold in the front stucco.
Heaven be praised it turns out the previous tenant was either growing weed or just sweating profusely because the mold is simply topical and not a result of poor drainage or a high water table. I almost passed out from the bleach fumes but after scrubbing for half a day the room is white again.

One

fillydesigns — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:17:19 +0000

Tuesday was a beast. I was alone at the property and that allowed me to focus on the task at hand- CLEANING. – I filled garbage bag after garbage bag with trash, pulled up carpet and manhandled the unruly troll sized hunk of scratchy stink into the driveway, posted three nasty couches to Craigslist Free List along with an additional pile of worthless but functional items, chaperoned the steady stream of takers away from the things I want to keep, like my own bike, and toward the actual free pile but still lost an extension cord and a ball hitch to greedy hands. I swept, coughed, got flirted with and wrote down names of cool folks I met so that I could invite them to “music in the yard” months from now. The result of nearly seven hours of labor is one cleared house. One valuable space. For the first time since I arrived I locked the doors.

You’re Going To Be Fine

fillydesigns — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:09:29 +0000

Monday was stimulating. Tiring. It knocked two hours off my evening and sent me to bed at ten sharp.
Monday I dug in. Put on my gloves, bought some bleach and large garbage bags and began the often stomach turning chore of removing somebody else’s sad life from my little houses. There was a lot to it. Yes it was physical work but that was minor compared to the emotional experience. This man lived with a bleach splattered futon couch molding and broken in the middle and the side. He threw his cigarette butts on the floor. He applied a cable lock to an oil can on his front stoop. He ate fast food and let the soiled plastic containers drift under the couch and accumulate. He also ate Honey Nut Cheerios which I also love and was tempted, in spite of everything, to eat from the boxes in the cabinet. He had a tidy drawer filled with batteries and local menus. He had a couple of bowls that must have belonged to his gramma. It wasn’t a matter of how quickly can I empty this space. I considered each item and the man who had come before. Dump, recycling, free pile, Craigslist, keep? His time here has ended. I want to honor that. He is gone because I am here. I am here little house… And I will love you in all the ways that he did not.

Square Dance

fillydesigns — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:39:27 +0000

Well, apparently it actually begins tomorrow because today is a Sunday.

I guess I better smoke a joint and go to Dance Church!

When they started to play slower songs I wove my way through sweaty half dressed bodies to the low slung alter against the back wall. I pulled a card and it read:
I chose to be here in this glorious physical body.
(To be me has been my choice)

I had to smile at that one.

Square One

fillydesigns — Sun, 05 May 2013 20:04:16 +0000

I am in Santa Cruz because of her- the Riverside Property, a pie shaped slice of cement with six habitable dwellings situated just blocks from the ocean. The potential is great. But she is far from her potential right now. This weekend the last of the previous tenants vacated the premises, leaving behind a dumpster’s worth of trash and a considerable amount of mold.
This property was purchased by my gramma and her business partner JPaul in 1972. That was certainly the last time anyone has looked at her with an appraising eye. Until now. When all eyes are on her.
Last night I had dinner with my family, aka the Riverside Shareholders. We worked on setting the ground rules for our project. I cried twice but by the time the Giants game was reaching a fevered pitch, we had a working contract written in ballpoint pen inside my journal. Doodles included.
And now it can begin.

Landed

fillydesigns — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:51:36 +0000

This isn’t a dream. I tell myself.
It’s better.

Embody

fillydesigns — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:09:22 +0000

There are moments when you’re sweaty, squinty, when both windows are rolled down and the wind whips sideways across your face and swirls your hair into a whipped bowl, where yours is the only old car in sight and you meet the California potholes like old friends, and you sing, in an off key strained voice, along to Squeeze’s Goodbye Girl and everything in the entire world feels right.

New Age

fillydesigns — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:50:57 +0000

I spent the night in a cottage in the town of Mount Shasta. In the morning Jill let me pull two radishes from her garden. Magic radishes. Obviously. She didn’t even have to tell me.
I walked to town via a shortcut: behind the library and around the side of the the art bus a plank walk winds its way through marshland and connects houses at the base of the mountain to the shops and motels on the main drag.
At Berryvale Grocery I tried to be patient and kind while a crippled old man in anarchist black canvas slowly purchased and packed two quarts of ice cream and a slice of cheesecake while the glossy lipped high off-centered pony tailed young woman rang him up and talk-shouted encouragement. From my vantage point both the ice cream and cake went into the backpack on their sides but I was in no mood to intercede. Like everyone else in Shasta I was calm on the outside, burning with rage on the inside. Because New Agers are frustrating to everyone including themselves.
The strange and terrifying thing was that no one noticed I was a tourist, fresh from the road, newly peeled from the chic modern culture of Portland OR. On the contrary I seemed to blend right in with my beret and blazer. When did I become this woman? And why don’t I care?