The Big Reveal, Makeover Preparations, and Quilted Blankets

The week of the 14th was spring break, so we didn't have our normal Thursday afternoon with the girls. However, many of the big sisters got together with Tesni at VisArts to work on some of the sewing projects that still needed to finish. It was a nice time to work together in the studio and spend time with just the ladies!

Last week was our second-to-last week of SOHO. Every year the end of the program sneaks up on us!   Last week, we were actually able to have Girl Talk outside due to the great spring weather! This second group of ladies started off by discussing their favorite parts of spring break.  Then we moved on Girl Talk, like last week, that was all about the future.  We started with similar discussions of what we all wanted to be when we grow up. Again, most girls were surprised that some of the big sisters were still figuring out this part of their lives even though they were "grown ups." This week's girls had a lot of big ideas: professional basketball player, life coach, lawyer, professional wrestler, teacher, etc. Then we balanced the peacock feathers and went to work on our future plans, and ultimate goal!

We had snack outside together with the girls from photography, then went in for the BIG REVEAL!

 

Every year all the women and girls work hard to complete all of our projects.  Sometimes, though, it can be challenging for the girls because they don't get to take anything home until the end.  But Big Reveal day is the day that we set out everything each pair has made over the entire program and reveal to everyone all of their hard work! It's really impressive to see all of the projects together. Everyone ran in excited, screaming, looking everything over, laying on pillows, and unfolding curtains.

After we all celebrated, we had a meeting (on our hand-made pillows) about room make-overs over the next few weeks. We reminded everyone of their makeover times, asked for everyone to do as much as they can before we get there, try to clean as much as possible. We also made sure to talk about know how the day will go and emphasized that we will work HARD but will have fun - with a great result!

Then it was down to the fiber studio. Since this was our last class before our makeovers, we had to work hard to get our blankets finished! This project takes a lot of team work because our machines are less than industrial and the blankets are thick and require a lot of maneuvering.  Usually one person has to sew and guide, while the other person pulls the fabric through and situates everything so nothing gets stuck or caught. It definitely works best as a two person job and it's fun to watch everyone work together. Many people finished, were very proud of themselves, and tried their blankets on immediately!

Make-over news is coming soon!

Feathers, Passports and Pinhole Cameras

Last week we had a new session of Girl Talk themed "the future!" where we began a group conversation around "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  The answers were varied and many of the girls were surprised the big sister's had answers since they are already "grown ups" in their eyes.

Some of these aspirations included: opening a bakery, being happy, having a family, being a lawyer, helping people, fashion designer, forensic scientist, having a beach house bigger than Justin Beiber, etc. This conversation was pretty simple, but it was really fun for the girls to share their ideas to hear them from others.  It was especially fun to hear that we ALL have hopes and dreams, no matter how old we are.  It was also especially funny when Tesni told them she was going to go to grad school for art education and everyone was confused because, as they said, "you already are an art teacher." 

Then everyone started off with an activity where you balance a peacock feather on your finger. It's a very simple activity, but really fun and with a great message. First everyone was told to try to balance the feather while they looked at their finger. This was hard and almost everyone had trouble. Then we all tried by looking at the eye of the peacock and it was suddenly a lot easier!

 

Everyone talked about how this could be a metaphor for our goals in life. Focusing on the "eye" or the goal instead of being overwhelmed by all of the steps we have to take to get there. Focus on the big picture everyday; don't get too caught up in the minute details that can lead to stress, fear or frustration. Everyone wanted to keep their feather!

Then we did an activity in our journals to think about where we will be in 4 years (high school for little sisters), 8 years,15 years, and 20 years. Both big and little sisters participated in writing these in their journals.  Then we talked in pairs about our little sister's big, ultimate goal. They thought about this and then broke down the steps needed in order to get to that ultimate goal.

Based on this the ladies created a "passport" with each page dedicated to each of the steps needed in order to complete our goal. We hope that they will keep these as a reminder for the steps they need to take to reach their hopes and dreams. Or we hope that one day they will find this again and check things off that they've completed.  It was fun listening to the pairs break down their goals into realistic steps. One little sister's goal was to be an accessories designer, and her big sister thought of a few necessary steps like going to college at an art school, and getting an internship at a design firm, etc. Another little sister wants to be a lawyer so her big sister was talking to her about going to law school and passing the bar!

Everyone had break outside this week again. Liana and Tesni brought some candy back from their recent trip to Iceland, which of course everyone was very excited about. The photography class was finishing up their pinhole camera photography this week. This is definitely one of the all-time favorite photography projects for the SOHO girls. The pairs work together to create  camera out of an old oatmeal container that was entirely light-tight except for one pinhole in the front.  Then the "took photos" outside directly onto photo-paper that is mounted on the inside of the container.

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The art portion of this day was mainly to finish things up as well as we could! We've missed a few days because of snow so we had a few sewing projects going on and a few pairs working on wood-burning their lap desks.  Thankfully, there was a lot of teamwork all around and the majority of projects were finished!

More Mantras, Basketball, and Fabric Dyeing

Last week's SOHO continued with the same Girl Talk activities as the previous week with the other set of ladies.  We all played the so-called "unfair game" which creates discussions around how to deal with stress or with things in your life being unfair. This group had a lot of fun with the "unfair game".

The group then created their mantra shadowboxes. Some of the mantras that we came up with were: be proud, be who you want to be, be unique, be smart, be bold, be sweet, be calm, be awesome, future champion, be yo self, and be brave! These turned out so beautifully.

The weather last Thursday was beautiful, so everyone decided we should take advantage of that. Everyone had snack outside in the VisArts courtyard. It was our first spring day outside together. We hula-hooped, played basketball, double-dutched, and then played a giant game of knockout! Some girls and women are excellent at basketball and they were able to show off their skills! And everyone had a good time even if basketball wasn't their strongest suit.

When everyone came back inside, we headed to the studio.  Last Thursday was fabric-dying night where pairs worked together to dye fabric for window curtains, closets curtains, and the backing of their quilted blankets. The technique we learned was called "ombre dying" where the color goes from light to dark. It's a pretty popular design concept these days. 

 

The process obviously involves some fabric dye so almost everyone decided to wear trash bags to try to keep their clothes clean and dye-free. Tesni had the dyeing system already set up (it's quite the site to see.  All the tables and a lot of the floor were covered in drop cloths and plastic.  Coat hangers suspended form the ceiling held their fabric which could then dip into the bucket filled with fabric dye. The ombre look is achieved by slowly raising the fabric out of the day so that the top stays lighter and the bottom gets dark and darker.  

 

This was especially nice because pairs had time in-between to chat while they waited during these intervals.  We used the ombre technique for all curtains. For the blankets, we dunked our fabric into the dye bath at the end and let it sit overnight.  This gave the cloth an all-over color, but wrinkles in the fabric still creates some very cool patterns in the fabric. On the way out, we had an impromptu trash bag fashion show and some girls wore theirs home!

After the girls went home, all of the SOHO big sisters went out for dinner and drinks at Heritage, a restaurant just down the street! It was so night so hang out with all the women outside of SOHO, have some fun and get to know each other. We have such an awesome, diverse, funny, close group this year!