The Detroit Project, Part One: Erin Has a Vision, Part Two

NBC's crafting competition show, Making It, recently completed its first season. The show, in the great tradition of The Great British Baking Show, is an incredibly polite competition show, pitting crafters, craft bloggers, and interior decorators against one another. Patches are awarded to the winning crafter in each round, and they get to hang out with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. They all seem to really like one another and help one another out. Despite being a long-form commercial for Etsy, the show was fun to watch and was both calming, because everyone was so darn nice to one another, and inspiring. I want my own makers shed! I want to make really fun light fixtures out of reclaimed wood and my imagination! I want Nick Offerman to think I'm creative! Be my friend, Amy Poehler!

Since last summer, I've been on a creative journey of sorts, finding inspiration from my friends in our monthly Wine & Crafts gatherings, working on a craftivist project, and experimenting with random materials like using cassette tape ribbon in place of embroidery thread. I've always enjoying making things, and the more ambitious the project the better. I enjoy a challenge; that's why I made a purse out of Legos and occasionally make my own gummy bears. Figuring stuff out is half the fun of creative projects. At its heart creativity is problem-solving. I do love to problem solve.

Once I started working with the cassette tape, I started to think about more ways to broaden my project scope. I love a lot of the irreverent, political, and feminist patterns out there today, but I wanted to start creating my own patterns. If a random person on Etsy can do it, I'm pretty certain I can too. I've started small, with patterns for badges and key chains. And I was slightly more ambitious with my Ziggy Stardust inspired piece for my aunt. Lettering is a pain in the ass, especially when you use cassette tape ribbon for cursive script. Regardless, these smaller projects were the starting point to something grander.

My family is from Detroit. Both of my parents were born and raised in the city. They probably would have stayed in Michigan had my father not joined the Army. We moved from Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, when I was four years old. I'm the only member of my immediate family who didn't grow up in Michigan. My brother went back for college, and lived in the apartment upstairs from the house our mother grew up in. For me, Detroit has always been a place I love fiercely, but have no real context for beyond the houses my parents grew up in (which my grandparents lived in until their deaths), my aunt's house in Corktown, Tiger Stadium, houses of relatives outside of the city that I recall from visits, and landmarks that are significant to us, but may not be to others (Lafayette Coney Island, Belle Isle, Dearborn Music, original location, and Pewabic Pottery).

I started to wonder what I could to create to explore my love of Detroit, my family history in the city, and discover a sense of home. That's another thing I think about often: where is home? I grew up all over the US, spending most of my time in New Orleans and Northern Virginia, two places that could not be more different from one another. At one point in my life, I considered New Orleans home, and to some degree, still feel very deeply connected to the city. I've never considered any part of Northern Virginia home, except for the fact that my family lives here. For me, I don't see NOVA as the place I'll live forever. Actually, that idea horrifies me a little bit since all I can think of is an endless loop of driving on 66 and hating everyone. This is not to say I don't have delightful childhood/teenage memories of NOVA and enjoy my adult existence here (to some degree), but it's not home.

I also want a big project to take up my time. What could be bigger than depicting the city of your birth? (Okay, okay, I was born in Southfield, MI, but you get my point.) With my Detroit Project, I want to tell the story of my family in Detroit via the places that were and are significant to us. The plan is to include landmarks as well, places that people need to know about and shaped the city of Detroit. I don't know what all of those places are yet, but I'll figure it out as I go. And yes, I'm aware that other artists already depict cities, but that's fine. My interpretation is not their interpretation. That's the fun of art.

So that's the idea, but now it's all about how to accomplish this whole thing. I identified a few places to start:

• My parents' childhood homes
• Tiger Stadium
• My aunt's house
• The Detroit Skyline
• the train station (Ford Motors has recently bought the station and is restoring it)
• Holy Redeemer Church (where my parents went to high school)
• Lafayette Coney Island
• Hamtramck Disney Land

I want to design each pattern myself. I've been baby-stepping my way to drawing patterns, using some of the set design knowledge from my college days to help me figure out basic shapes and that I can, in fact, make lines work together to form shapes and buildings. I bought a pattern from Etsy recently so I can practice buildings (yes, it's Detroit-themed). I need to visit to take photos so I'm working from my own images. I also plan to go through all the photos in my parents' basement to see if there's anything I can use there too. My brother took a few photos of places for me on his recent visit; the houses both do and don't look the same.  

I've decided to start with Tiger Stadium and make something for my brother. Tiger Stadium will always be my favorite baseball stadium. It was torn down years ago, and the space is now a community baseball field (which is great to see). When we were kids, we'd sit in the bleacher seats to watch games and do the Chicken Dance at some point in the game. I have a lot of fond memories of that stadium and my brother has even more (he worked there when he was in college too). Next week, I'm attending Stitch & Pitch at Nats Park here in DC, a random attempt to get crafters to come watch baseball. I have no idea if this is going to work. I'm basing the design on the original blueprints of the stadium and incorporating a few additional elements to enhance the vintage feel.

Next week, I'll share the process for creating the pattern and what it's like to embroider at a baseball game. That's a sentence I never thought I'd write, but here we are. Over the course of the next year, I'll share various projects from the Detroit Project, as well as unveiling my Badass Herstory project contribution. Here's hoping I can pull this off and make some cool pieces about a city I love very much.

Next week: We adventure to Nationals Park to experience Stitch & Pitch. I'll share my Detroit Tigers themed piece for my brother, and we'll discuss whether or not embroidering at a baseball game is a good idea.

I don't want to dress up like a hipster

I knew that my love affair with Diet Coke was on its way to a full out break up when the first Taylor Swift Diet Coke commercial aired. Once the 22 year-olds start singing about being hipsters and hanging out all while drinking a frosty, delicious Diet Coke, you know that nothing will ever be the same again. I feel like Taylor Swift was sitting around one day in some adorable outfit trying to decide what words best described her latest romantic drama and she thought, "You know what? Diet Coke will never leave me or act like a jerk in public so I'll just write songs about how I feel when the caffeine kicks in and the bubbles get in my nose. But then I'll tell everyone it was about falling in love with that guy from that band everyone used to like (or actor that was in that famous movie). I'm a freaking genius."

Some people would just move on and continue enjoying Diet Coke. If they felt really strongly about Taylor's endorsement of Diet Coke maybe they'd switch to Diet Pepsi (if they like to make bad life choices) or maybe they switch to Tab (if they really miss the 1980s). Me, I quit drinking it entirely. Seemed like the right choice to make.

Obviously, this is a lie. Taylor Swift is not the reason I no longer drink Diet Coke. Interestingly enough, I did give this as a reason to one of my co-workers and he believed me. I'm not sure if that means that my co-worker is incredibly gullible or if he just thinks I'm the type of person that would give up soda entirely (not just Diet Coke) because a pop star I don't like endorsed the product. I'm not sure what that says about either of us.

Anyway, I decided to give up soda not too long after I purchased my Fitbit. I'm not what you would call athletic. The majority of my physical fitness comes from cleaning my apartment, dancing around my apartment, and occasional trips to the bowling alley. Or walking to Whole Foods to get a $9 salad for lunch. I'm more of an indoor kid; I like to read, watch movies, be creative, organize things. That's me. I do like to walk, especially outside, so the Fitbit appealed to me because it basically tracks steps. I walk so it's a natural fit. What I was unaware of until my friend told me was that I could also track my food and my sleep with a Fitbit. So it's not just a glorified pedometer. I took the plunge and bought my Flex in February.

And I immediately became obsessed.

The long and short of it is that the Fitbit is a fitness list. The tracker tracks my steps for me and allows me to see my progress day to day (and with lovely weekly reports). I enter my food on either the app or through the website. I track my food like a champ even if it's Twizzlers or that popcorn I had for dinner the other day. I can also add other activities to my log which increases my burned calories for the day. Did you know that shoveling snow burns 200 calories (on the low end) or that vacuuming burns 60? The sleep tracking is interesting too: I am a 98% efficient sleeper. I had a hard time believing this at first but it's been consistent since I got the Flex. More interesting is the fact that most of the times I wake up at night can be attributed to a certain feline that lives in my apartment. Having the Flex has made me more aware of what I do and what I eat. I also drink more water now than I probably have in my entire life. Thanks Fitbit.

This is my best day to date. I'm very proud of it.

I've tried other fitness apps before but have eventually lost interest. I think it's mostly because of the fact that they weren't tied to anything and didn't necessarily provide ways to really track what I was actually doing. I've also connected to several of my friends who have Fitbits. It's a nice encouraging community of people trying to be healthier. It's not really a competition. Really. I mean, I might occasionally think to myself that I want to "beat" one of them but it's all in fun. I also like that Fitbit sends me super encouraging emails and updates on my phone. It would be cool if Fitbit talked and if I could select the voice like on a GPS (I would select "attractive British guy"). That would make Fitbit even better. Oh and if it said things like, "You hit all your goals today. Go ahead and enjoy cupcake happy hour. You deserve it."

Since I bought Fitbit (I realize I'm referring to Fitbit as if it were a person - don't judge) I decided to make some other changes to go along tracking steps and water intake and sleep. Giving up soda was the biggest of these. I'm a fairly healthy eater (although I love cheese, nachos, and Twizzlers) but I do admit to having a soda problem. I never kept track but I probably drank more soda than a person should. I mostly stuck to diet but that doesn't really mean it was better for me. It's still chemicals and unnatural sweeteners so it can't be good. But, as we all know, it's delicious. A perfectly mixed fountain Diet Coke is so refreshing and wonderful. Add some Juan's Flying Burrito black bean and cheese nachos and you basically have the perfect meal. I thought I'd start small so I gave up soda for Lent. If I made it through forty days, I would give it up entirely. I succeeded - I haven't had a soda since March 5.

The first two weeks were the worst. I had occasional headaches which I attribute to my change in caffeine intake. I adjusted my coffee/tea drinking habits a bit and that took care of the headaches (not increasing just spacing out a little differently). I started drinking seltzer water for the bubbles and variety. I have a daily water goal and I usually go over the goal. There were two days that I really craved Diet Coke; I probably would have punched someone in the face if it meant that I could have one. But I did not punch anyone nor did I have a Diet Coke. I can do this.

The forty days of Lent have now turned into sixty-six days total. I have more energy which means I walk more (I'm up to around four miles at least three times a week). I meet my daily step goal of 10,000 steps more often. I don't get as annoyed with myself when I don't hit the goal. You have to take the good and the bad (as The Facts of Life tells us). I can honestly say I don't miss Diet Coke. We had a nice run but it's over.

So Taylor Swift, I give you Diet Coke. I hope you have a wonderful relationship and that Diet Coke treats you better than all the men in all of your songs. I hope when you dress like a hipster people take you seriously (especially the glasses). I hope Diet Coke makes you happy. Treat it well.

And I'm sure my comments have now secured me a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. At least Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be there with me so I think we'll be good.

Marc Jacobs Diet Coke cans