Make Yourself at Home

Why Didn't You Think of That?

Putting It Together

Design for Living

Incidental Treasures:

What comes to mind when we think of hippies? Their wild, worn, colorful clothing. Hippie garb is back and its influences are many and varied. Ethnic sensibilities have a lot to do with the hippie wardrobe. Tie die, batik, Indian beading and fringe all have their roots in the cultures of indigenous peoples. Wearing this sort of garment demonstrated solidarity with the oppressed. Recycled clothing, or vintage as we know it also played its part in the hippie movement. New garments were considered bourgeois and decadent, when there was all this used clothing that was still perfectly good around. Items like the vintage defense contractor blouse from WWII, the antique quilt halter, the paisley scarf and the lace evening jacket from the Victorian era were coveted then and now. Hippies made the best of it all and put tattered threads together with the requisite broken in jeans to make their anti-establishment views known. Speaking of jeans, we featured a lovely pair of hand painted jeans - the hand decoration of garments was another aspect to hippie dress. With the resurgence of hippie chic in fashion today these garments look fresh again, yet can still be picked up for good prices by eagle eyed thrift shoppers. "Get with it" and start dressing to bug the establishment!

Help Me Brini:

What do you do when a family member indulges in something you don't approve of in your home?

The key is to set ground rules - don't let them take advantage of your good nature. It's helpful to employ humor and don't let your emotions get the best of you. Remember it's about respect - though you may feel they're disrespecting you by indulging in the habit in your home, don't disrespect them when making your point.

Random Thoughts

This is one of my favorite episodes from this season. We had so much fun planning out the room, and making those sand candles on the beach. It was delightful to explore the hippie lifestyle from a pop-culture point of view.

The scene on the beach was shot at the end of Sunset Boulevard on a beautiful day in spring 2005. The shoot was an easy one and we finished up early enough to go over to Gladstones for a bite to eat. They were kind enough to lend Julia Van Vliet, the art director for the scene a burner to melt the wax on for our sand candles during the shoot.

This episode has its origins in the local show I used to do in New York. We did an episode very similar to this one, right down to the use of Styrofoam peanuts as a running joke. That idea was my mother's. She directed the original episode and was delighted to see the gag repeated in this one. The reference to "Mary Jane" in the Help Me Brini segment is a bit of a nod to my mother, that's her name.

The kaleidoscope effect was the idea of our director, Dana Calderwood. He remembered using the same effect in the 70's on films he worked on then. He's an interesting fellow, his previous gig was on John Edwards' show and he has many spooky stories about John's ability to contact the dead.