Not Ready Ready-Wear...

In early March, Ashlynn shocked me by inviting me along for a shoot in an unused office building in Zaandam for Ting Gong, a Chinese clothing designer whose designs combine technology with contemporary art. Holocube, her line of "Not Ready Ready-Wear," is made largely out of metal mesh. She was leaving the following day to exhibit her designs in China and wanted photos to take along. Unfortunately, four months later, we still don't have the professional shots, so here's a few that I took combined with some from Ting's Instagram account.

Everyone was really sweet; in fact, the only person that was opposed to me snapping pics was Ashlynn.

This metallic outfit was especially fascinating...

...when it started to glow under my phone's flash.

As you can see, these clothes are much more of an art statement than something that will actually be sold off the rack.

There were a lot of changes of outfits, but the shoot actually went quite quickly as the photographer was looking for the same basic pose with each new outfit. As usual, it was fun for me to see Ashlynn in action.

Cocktails and Pussy Hats...

Sorry once again for a lack of posts. I've been in the South of France for the last week. I anticipated I'd have lots of time to catch up on my blog, but without any Internet (apparently the phone line was cut at the end of the road), I was instead forced to relax by the pool and read for most of my holiday. More on that later....

In late February, Jimmy and I went to an AWC Cocktail Party in Oestgeest. While waiting for our bus from Leiden Centraal, we relaxed in a newly opened waiting area. We were very impressed with the decor, but not so impressed that whomever set the clocks didn't know that Leiden and Paris are in the same time zone.

The cocktail party was great fun with a delicious potluck dinner, a guitarist and a large variety of cocktails. Failed to get a nice photo of me and Jimmy, but here I am with the lady taking over my job as Editor, the lady whose job of Treasurer I'm taking over and the lady that is thankfully staying to be my Assistant Treasurer.

Future AWC President Mary Ann, in the center, amazed us with an incredible a cappella performance from Porgy and Bess. She and I were both thrilled that a visitor that Georgia brought along just happened to have spare pussy hats for us. Celeste, on the left, was a great hostess.

Our Ginger Girl...

In early February, Ashlynn missed a day of school to be in her first video. She was hired by The Insiders, a Dutch hair brand started by a collaboration of hair professionals, to be in two instructional videos on using their products. They specifically wanted a native English speaker. I went with her to find their corporate headquarters in an industrial park in Amsterdam, but didn’t stay. She sent me this behind-the-scene photo...

...and later The Insiders posted this photo. Unfortunately, when I first posted this five months later, they are still working on editing the videos. Turned out that she was in two videos, one called Pretty Festival Grunge Look and the other called Colour Love (unfortunately, this one has since been taken off their website). 

It was a very long day--13 hours--but she enjoyed herself. She had been warned that the color mask might temporarily change her hair color, but we were surprised when she returned home with orange hair and she was surprised with how long it took for the dye to completely wash out.

Depending upon the light, her hair looked nearly the same shade of ginger as Sophie’s.

Our First Peace Rally....

Although the signs might appear as negative, the energy flowing through the crowd was actually quite positive. 

The march itself was quite short across the Museumplein...

...with a short stop past the Van Gogh Museum for photo ops...

...and then across to the American Consulate. It was incredibly peaceful with no police officers in evidence except in front of the US Consulate.

Women’s March in Amsterdam...

On January 20, Donald Trump became the 45th President of the US. On January 21, people gathered together in major cities around the globe to march on behalf of women’s rights and broader human rights considered potentially at risk under a Trump administration. Jimmy, Ashlynn and I went to Amsterdam to participate in our first peace protest. Ashlynn ran into some girls from school who had made signs using artwork supplied online by the artist who originally made the Obama Hope art.

Here’s the back of their signs. 

Hundreds gathered in front of the Rijksmuseum on a bright and sunny winter day.

We arrived too late to get the free “pussy” hats that were being passed out.

There were lots of great signs.

Amsterdam Light Festival...

The theme this year for the Illuminade, the self-guided walking route, was biomimicry: the science where the logic and structures of nature are applied to solve human problems. Frankly, this theme was a bit weird and so were many of the light installations...

...although this one was pretty cool...

...and I liked the giant spider.

NEST was one of my favorites. The two Indian artists were inspired by bowerbirds of Australia who build their giant nests only with recycled materials, especially blue plastic waste.

Light Me Up..

On January 2, we headed into Amsterdam a bit early for the hash so we could go to the Nieuwe Kerk to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibit in honor of the 90th anniversary of her birthday. Photos weren’t allowed of her beautiful dresses, but it was cool seeing them along with clips from many of her movies.

Afterwards we saw a giant tree in front of Dam Palace...

and beautiful lights on the Bijenkorf department store. 

Eventually we made our way to Abbie and Derek’s house for the start of the hash, where Jimmy made us these lovely accessories made out of light sticks. Since the roads were icy, we walked instead of attempting to run.