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| Presidential Monday: The kiddos had the day off while I had a day of meetings. And kids claim life isn't fair for them? Oh, just you wait until you enter Grown Up Town, Junior. sweater: vintage, found at Goodwill and shown with it's sister sweaters here; skirt: vintage, thrifted; belt and boots: Anthropologie; fishnets: dunno, Target? |
'Ello, mates! This week, my students and I began transitioning from all things Germany to the United Kingdom. We've been having a jolly good time learning all about the Queen, her home at Buckingham Palace, her guards with the funny furry hats, the geography, food, slang, you name it, we've chatted about it. We've even been burning up the CD player with one student's One Direction CD and my Beatles collection. My plan is to hold a tea in my art room this week. With a half an hour art time and projects to work on, we'll see how that goes. I'll keep you posted.
To celebrate our voyage to the UK, I've been sporting Union Jack inspired outfits this week. Because of this, I thought I'd share just a pinch of the history of the Union Jack as well as some miscellaneous bits. I hope you enjoy.
This coming week is Read Across America Week! At my school wear are celebrating by dressing a bit wacky everyday (so why don't they just call it Dress Like an Art Teacher Week?). If you are a teacher, are you dressing up? If so, I'd love to see what you are wearing. Please feel free to share a link to your blog in the comments. And if you aren't a teacher, I still wanna see your wacky wears!
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| The Union Flag: Aka, Union Jack. This is the flag of the United Kingdom (not just that place where One Direction is from, as my students would have you believe). This is also the flag of several British territories. And it makes an appearance in the upper left hand corner of former British countries (think Australia). Personally, I think this is the best designed flag ever. |
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| The Making of the Union Jack: So the story goes that in 1603, James VI of Scotland inherited the English and Irish thrones. This united England, Scotland and Ireland although they remained separate states. Combining the flags of these states, a new flag was created. I'm not sure why the Welsh flag was not included in this mash up of flag design. Might have something to do with that giant red dragon their flag has smack in the middle. |
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| Union Jack Attack Tuesday: To really kick off our new adventure in the United Kingdom, I decided to wear the colors of the Union Jack this week. Which took some digging into the depths of my closet as I just don't wear a ton of cobalt blue. sweater: vintage, thrifted; plaid dress: from a rare venture into the mall a million years ago; belt: Anthropologie; sparkly fishnets and tights: Target; shoes: Irregular Choice |
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| Union Jack Doc Martins: In junior high, I experienced my own British invasion in the form of a Beatles obsession. Which I think is an absolute requirement if you are to have any taste in music as an adult. My summer job as a corn detasseler in rural Indiana never paid enough for me to purchase my own pair of Docs. If it would have, I think I'd have lived in these. |
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| Trying Hard and Failing Wednesday: Not in love with this outfit, just a little too much pattern clashing for me. Ah well, better luck next Wednesday (which happens to be "words on a shirt" day for Read Across America Week, eep!). shirt: thrifted; sweater: Lucky Brand, thrifted; skirt: Anthro, bought at Buffalo Exchange; belt: Pinup Girl Clothing; fishnets: Target; shoes: Softt |
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| Talkin' 'Bout my Ge-ge-generation: Of course, one British band obsessions usually leads to another. My bedroom growing up housed Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin posters as well. To this day, I don't believe there's a hotter dude than a young Robert Plant. BTW, did Pete Townsend's mom make him wear that jacket? He looks mighty miffed. |
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| The Thursday I'd Like to Forget: Yeah, it was one of those days. So let's focus on the positive: my (almost) completely thrifted outfit! Typing up these little outfit portions, I've noticed that most of my outfits are thrifted this week. There's really nothing like striking gold at the thrift store, says me. sweater: Old Navy, thrifted; dress: BCBG, thrifted; belt: Supayana on etsy; fishnets: Target?; shoes: Irregular Choice |
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World's Most Expensive Union Jack: According to the The Daily Mail UK, this is the only surviving flag from the Battle of Trafalgar from the early 1800's. It sold for
£384,000 (which would be about $585,254). According to The Daily Mail, the huge flag "is littered with holes from shot damage and still has a
whiff of gunpowder, flew from the jackstaff of HMS Spartiate at the
historic battle 204 years ago. After
the victory over Napoleon's French army, the crew lowered the flag and
presented it to Lieutenant James Clephan for his outstanding
performance."
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| Graffiti artist, activist, film maker and painter Banksy has been creating public work with a statement since the early 90's. In this particular piece, which depicts a child sewing Union Jack bunting, Bansky was trying to bring to light child labor laws in Britain. The Queen was not a fan of this particular work. To the fury of the local community, this piece was chiseled off the wall and sent to Miami for auction. It's interesting to me how artists can say so much by their depiction of a flag in a work of art. | |
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| Painted Legs Friday: Not really. But you wouldn't believe the number of kids that thought I had. Little dudes, I love to go the extra mile for you, but that would be a little too far. Even for a crazy art teacher like me. dress: old, Free People; jacket: old, ModCloth; shoes: Clarks; tights: amazon (where you can seriously find EVERYTHING); floral hair clip: made by me |
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| Ginger Spice! If the Queen wasn't pleased with Banksy's work, I wonder what she thought of this little number. I was in college when "Wannabe" and the Spice Girls exploded, like, everywhere. I was too busy listening to (and pretending to like) those grungy dude bands. Besides, what in the world IS a Sporty Spice? Most def not something I wanted sprinkled on my dinner, thank ya very much. |
