Replying to Cat's post got me thinking about another blog that I follow that's sort of fashion-related, which may only be interesting to me, except whatever, I'll share it with you guys anyway.
Cation Designs is a sewing blog by a lady in California who is super geeky and super good at sewing, as far as I'm concerned. She simultaneously makes me want to get better at it, and throw in the towel while I still have a chance. I originally saw her Superman dress, and have been following her blog ever since. She seems like a super cool person, posts sweet pictures of costumes and things, has an adorable cat, and occasionally writes serious posts like this interview with her mom.
And now I'll get back to work.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Uncrafty Solutions
I've spent the past few weeks thinking on and off about fashion - sometimes because of this blog, sometimes because of other reasons like seeing something pretty in a store window - and I keep coming back to this image.
I don't really have anything to say about it that hasn't already been said, and likely in a better way than I could put it, but I've been thinking about how hard it is to be an ethical consumer of fashion when on a pretty strict budget. And when craft-ally challenged, like me. (That one week I tried to learn how to knit, I hurt my hands more than I thought possible). The saying I remember hearing in engineering a good many times - that, of the three options of "cheap," "good," and "fast," you get to pick two - seems applicable here, though maybe with some changes.
When it comes to buying clothes, I mostly try to get things second-hand, but I admittedly have a weakness for online shopping and for H&M. Plus, places like American Apparel may manufacture clothes in the U.S., but their advertising leaves such a gross taste in my mouth that I don't really want to have anything to do with them. In short, it feels like there aren't many good options out there.
What do you folks think about fashion and ethics? What kinds of choices are important to you?
I don't really have anything to say about it that hasn't already been said, and likely in a better way than I could put it, but I've been thinking about how hard it is to be an ethical consumer of fashion when on a pretty strict budget. And when craft-ally challenged, like me. (That one week I tried to learn how to knit, I hurt my hands more than I thought possible). The saying I remember hearing in engineering a good many times - that, of the three options of "cheap," "good," and "fast," you get to pick two - seems applicable here, though maybe with some changes.
When it comes to buying clothes, I mostly try to get things second-hand, but I admittedly have a weakness for online shopping and for H&M. Plus, places like American Apparel may manufacture clothes in the U.S., but their advertising leaves such a gross taste in my mouth that I don't really want to have anything to do with them. In short, it feels like there aren't many good options out there.
What do you folks think about fashion and ethics? What kinds of choices are important to you?
Monday, May 20, 2013
The only thing I do fashionably is arrive late
I am, like, terrible at fashion. I can tell what's fashionable on other people, but God help me when it comes to dressing myself. I could write this post about all my insecurities when it comes to clothes and how much I'd prefer every single workplace to have its own uniform (also maybe my personal experiences with uniforms and individuality), but instead I'll tell you about the one and only fashion blog that I read.
À l’allure garçonnière is written by a person from Quebec City, and instead of being solely "look at this cute outfit I wore today," the writer actually delves into issues such as how fashion shapes culture and vice versa. The blog is updated infrequently at the moment, but I feel like I learn something valuable from each post.
À l’allure garçonnière is written by a person from Quebec City, and instead of being solely "look at this cute outfit I wore today," the writer actually delves into issues such as how fashion shapes culture and vice versa. The blog is updated infrequently at the moment, but I feel like I learn something valuable from each post.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
May Topic!
Hi everybody!
We didn't do too well with the coworkers topic (not to mention posting the new topic on time, oops), but it's onward and upward. So!
The April poll closed with the following breakdown of votes:
So the topic for this month is fashion, in a landslide!
Contributors: You can interpret this topic any way you want, and you can write as many posts about it as you want (within reason, obviously, not like 200 posts over the course of the month, but I don't think any of us have that kind of time on our hands). When you write your post, make sure you tag it with the topic and your name/blog identifier, so that if any potential readers like you and hate the rest of us, they can find your posts easily.
Everyone: There is a poll for the June topic in the sidebar, and you can vote until the last day of this month. Whichever topic gets the most votes gets written about next month.
Counting, cacti, and personal finance were kicked off of the poll this month. If you really want to see what we have to say about them, you'll have to suggest those topics again.
Comment on this post or the topic ideas post if there's anything you'd like to see added to the poll in June. As far as I'm concerned, any topic is fair game, so suggest away!
We didn't do too well with the coworkers topic (not to mention posting the new topic on time, oops), but it's onward and upward. So!
The April poll closed with the following breakdown of votes:
- 0 votes: counting, cacti, body mods, personal finance, religion, something you love, something you hate, food, character
- 1 vote: fashion
So the topic for this month is fashion, in a landslide!
Contributors: You can interpret this topic any way you want, and you can write as many posts about it as you want (within reason, obviously, not like 200 posts over the course of the month, but I don't think any of us have that kind of time on our hands). When you write your post, make sure you tag it with the topic and your name/blog identifier, so that if any potential readers like you and hate the rest of us, they can find your posts easily.
Everyone: There is a poll for the June topic in the sidebar, and you can vote until the last day of this month. Whichever topic gets the most votes gets written about next month.
Counting, cacti, and personal finance were kicked off of the poll this month. If you really want to see what we have to say about them, you'll have to suggest those topics again.
Comment on this post or the topic ideas post if there's anything you'd like to see added to the poll in June. As far as I'm concerned, any topic is fair game, so suggest away!
Monday, April 1, 2013
April Topic!
Hi everybody!
The March poll closed with the following breakdown of votes:
So the topic for this month is coworkers.
Contributors: You can interpret this topic any way you want, and you can write as many posts about it as you want (within reason, obviously, not like 200 posts over the course of the month, but I don't think any of us have that kind of time on our hands). When you write your post, make sure you tag it with the topic and your name/blog identifier, so that if any potential readers like you and hate the rest of us, they can find your posts easily.
Everyone: There is a poll for the May topic in the sidebar, and you can vote until the last day of this month. Whichever topic gets the most votes gets written about next month.
"The sea" got kicked off of the poll this month. If you really want to see what we have to say about it, you'll have to suggest that topic again.
Comment on this post or the topic ideas post if there's anything you'd like to see added to the poll in May. As far as I'm concerned, any topic is fair game, so suggest away!
The March poll closed with the following breakdown of votes:
- 0 votes: the sea, cacti, body mods, personal finance
- 1 vote: counting
- 2 votes: coworkers
So the topic for this month is coworkers.
Contributors: You can interpret this topic any way you want, and you can write as many posts about it as you want (within reason, obviously, not like 200 posts over the course of the month, but I don't think any of us have that kind of time on our hands). When you write your post, make sure you tag it with the topic and your name/blog identifier, so that if any potential readers like you and hate the rest of us, they can find your posts easily.
Everyone: There is a poll for the May topic in the sidebar, and you can vote until the last day of this month. Whichever topic gets the most votes gets written about next month.
"The sea" got kicked off of the poll this month. If you really want to see what we have to say about it, you'll have to suggest that topic again.
Comment on this post or the topic ideas post if there's anything you'd like to see added to the poll in May. As far as I'm concerned, any topic is fair game, so suggest away!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
It was the best of dates, it was the worst of dates
For a 26 year-old, I've been on comparatively few dates (maybe? sometimes this is hard to determine). For the purposes of this blog post, I'm defining date as a one-on-one outing that happens prior to the establishment of a serious/committed romantic relationship, because it's sometimes hard to determine what a date is, too. So, with my limited experience, I don't have any real horror stories along the lines of "he got way too drunk and then vomited on me when he leaned in for a kiss" or anything. But I do have a personal best and worst--excluding from consideration my most recent experience, because that wound is still very tender--and now I will tell you about them.
Best
I think the best dates combine chemistry with novelty or atmosphere to become fun and memorable.
I spent a lot of my first year of university with a giant crush on a boy who ultimately ended up rejecting me halfway through the year. I started my second year of university resigned to never speaking to him again, until we reconnected halfway through that year. He was the first male of the species that I met who was like me.
Both shy, and in my case having been burned before, we had to get a bit creative with our suggestions for hang out time, neither of us willing to initiate a conversation about what would turn out to be our mutual attraction. Anyway, imagine my luck when I had an English assignment that took me to the main library on campus, a place I previously hadn't visited except for internet access on my lunch breaks, but which he happened to be very familiar with!
So one way or another, we ended up meeting at the library. I arrived first and was so nervous that I almost ended up hiding and not speaking to him, except that somehow I managed to psych myself up to say hello after all (in case it's not clear yet, I was terrible at social interaction when I was 19).
Once we were talking I was glad I hadn't flaked out, but my heart was pounding the entire time that we spent wandering through the library, from the microfilm room to the place where they keep the books about Shakespeare. We teased each other, or at least I remember him teasing me. I was just generally thrilled to be surrounded by books, with the boy I liked much more than I was willing to admit yet, except to myself.
That date and a few others turned into a little spring romance and then disproportionate heartbreak. In spite of that, the time I spent with him, including our library excursion, holds pride of place in a few different categories of my past.
Worst
My worst date experience was one that I never should've agreed to in the first place, which was one of the elements that made it bad. I could've easily avoided it! I'll keep details to a minimum about the gentleman in question. He was a random dude that I had really awkward sexual tension with, but his personality put me off on the several occasions we'd been in group situations. The invitation was made under questionable circumstances, the venue was his choice (a bad one), and the conversation was lacklustre. I'm kind of a terrible conversationalist at the best of times, prone to getting distracted by anything in the vicinity that's moving, but I was in especially bad form that night, and strangely he made almost no effort to draw me out.
I spent the lead up to the date just dreading the experience, and for the only time in my life I arranged an excuse to leave early. Maybe predictably, this was much more of a learning experience for me than any date I actually enjoyed. In particular: if you really don't think you're interested in someone, don't go out with them. It's a waste of everyone's time.
He asked me out again and I turned him down, and eventually I think he gave up on me.
***
And now I can't help wondering whether these two dudes read this blog. Eep. My apologies to both of them, anyway.
Best
I think the best dates combine chemistry with novelty or atmosphere to become fun and memorable.
I spent a lot of my first year of university with a giant crush on a boy who ultimately ended up rejecting me halfway through the year. I started my second year of university resigned to never speaking to him again, until we reconnected halfway through that year. He was the first male of the species that I met who was like me.
Both shy, and in my case having been burned before, we had to get a bit creative with our suggestions for hang out time, neither of us willing to initiate a conversation about what would turn out to be our mutual attraction. Anyway, imagine my luck when I had an English assignment that took me to the main library on campus, a place I previously hadn't visited except for internet access on my lunch breaks, but which he happened to be very familiar with!
So one way or another, we ended up meeting at the library. I arrived first and was so nervous that I almost ended up hiding and not speaking to him, except that somehow I managed to psych myself up to say hello after all (in case it's not clear yet, I was terrible at social interaction when I was 19).
Once we were talking I was glad I hadn't flaked out, but my heart was pounding the entire time that we spent wandering through the library, from the microfilm room to the place where they keep the books about Shakespeare. We teased each other, or at least I remember him teasing me. I was just generally thrilled to be surrounded by books, with the boy I liked much more than I was willing to admit yet, except to myself.
That date and a few others turned into a little spring romance and then disproportionate heartbreak. In spite of that, the time I spent with him, including our library excursion, holds pride of place in a few different categories of my past.
Worst
My worst date experience was one that I never should've agreed to in the first place, which was one of the elements that made it bad. I could've easily avoided it! I'll keep details to a minimum about the gentleman in question. He was a random dude that I had really awkward sexual tension with, but his personality put me off on the several occasions we'd been in group situations. The invitation was made under questionable circumstances, the venue was his choice (a bad one), and the conversation was lacklustre. I'm kind of a terrible conversationalist at the best of times, prone to getting distracted by anything in the vicinity that's moving, but I was in especially bad form that night, and strangely he made almost no effort to draw me out.
I spent the lead up to the date just dreading the experience, and for the only time in my life I arranged an excuse to leave early. Maybe predictably, this was much more of a learning experience for me than any date I actually enjoyed. In particular: if you really don't think you're interested in someone, don't go out with them. It's a waste of everyone's time.
He asked me out again and I turned him down, and eventually I think he gave up on me.
***
And now I can't help wondering whether these two dudes read this blog. Eep. My apologies to both of them, anyway.
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