October 2021

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. It’s darker at night now and my tennis elbow is currently allowing me to knit a little, so that means we’re watching things again. We never finished The Mandalorian, but reading about “The Western and Samurai Influences of ‘The Mandalorian’” got me exited to dive back in.

2. In strike news, this thread from a salaried worker at John Deere is excellent reading:

I find it horribly ironic that Deere, a company that constantly reminds us about how instrumental they are to “feeding the world,” can’t even be bothered to feed its most critical employees.
3. A mood this week:
4. And finally, Happy Samhain on Sunday, the Celtic/witches’ new year. Think about what you don’t want to carry any more. Light a candle for those who have gone before you. And eat some candy.

Newsletters About Clothes

By in fashun

Both Virginia Sole-Smith and Anne Helen Petersen sent out newsletters ruminating about loving clothes on your own terms, how fatphobic most fashion “rules” are, and how to keep (or get back to) the joy we all felt as kids when we out on an outfit we loved. (Plus, they both include descriptions of those kid outfits that are perfection: “My middle school aesthetic fell somewhere between Punky Brewster and Rayanne Graff, if they were also very into rainforest vibes.”)

Sole-Smith’s newsletter hits on how dressing for joy almost inevitably becomes dressing to blend in (and the thin privilege thereof), plus the intersection of navigating all of this as female:

Every creative kid goes through some process of deciding how much they want to stick out and how much they need to blend in, in order to survive their tween and teenage years. What once felt special, personal, and unique suddenly becomes “attention seeking,” which, we learn early, is one of the worst qualities a girl can have.

Petersen’s newsletter links back to Sole-Smith’s and talks about unpacking the years of blending in:

What does it look like to dress with the same joy as you did before you became conscious of your body? Is it possible to choose an outfit with the underlying supposition that the body is beautiful in it, is lovable, is sexy, simply because you have decided it is? What would it look like to talk about clothes without talking about bodies — which is to say, without talking about “flattering”?

They’re good bookends to each other. At the very least they’ll get you remembering your favorite outfits as a kid.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Recovering Chairs, Saving Money

By in decorating, home improvement, Tuesday Project Roundup

I really want a new dining set but I just bought a couch and need to buy some wallpaper (and a single-level house without an HOA in the mid-future). So saving money with DIY skills was in order. First up, replacing the split cane and worn out foam on the old chairs:

I went back and forth a lot on vinyl types to replace the cane with but finally settled on a bright green (from Fabric.com–I only needed a yard for four seats). Once I figured out I could just pull the vinyl around the seat corners and didn’t need to make folds, it went quickly.

The hardest part was getting the staples out of the old cane–honestly, it was easier to pull staples out of the bathroom subfloor than these chair seats. 

These still aren’t the most comfortable chairs but the new foam (from JoAnn, in store) helps a lot–and they’ll work for now.

Next up, I’m making skirted tablecloth made to cover the (thrifted IKEA, dinged up and dirty) dining table completely:

(Will Toby ever get off a fabric-covered table? Will we be creating a tablecloth Fort Kickass for him to play in constantly? Stay tuned.)

Monday Poem

By in poems

Literally–it’s titled “Monday” and it’s pretty recent (seen here, if you’d like audio). Yes, we all deserve “a flute of champagne/ for having made it this far!”

 

Monday
by Alex Dimitrov

I was just beginning
to wonder about my own life
and now I have to return to it
regardless of the weather
or how close I am to love.
Doesn’t it bother you sometimes
what living is, what the day has turned into?
So many screens and meetings
and things to be late for.
Everyone truly deserves
a flute of champagne
for having made it this far!
Though it’s such a disaster
to drink on a Monday.
To imagine who you would be
if you hadn’t crossed the street
or married, if you hadn’t
agreed to the job or the money
or how time just keeps going—
whoever agreed to that
has clearly not seen
the beginning of summer
or been to a party
or let themselves float
in the middle of a book
where for however briefly
it’s possible to stay longer than
you should. Unfortunately
for me and you, we have
the rest of it to get to.
We must pretend
there’s a blue painting
at the end of this poem.
And every time we look at it
we forget about ourselves.
And every time it looks at us
it forgives us for pain.

Friday Links

By in Friday Unrelated Information

1. What’s the latest on the John Deere strike? The company is doing whatever it can to break the picket lines:

If you want to help the workers on strike–who have no wages, no healthcare, and clearly no hope John Deere is going to work towards a resolution–this Go Fund Me is active again (it raised so much money in its first 24 hours, organizers briefly closed it to consult with UAW about the best use of funds). Hold the line!

2. This is just fun to look at: Flower interpretations of works of art (via Laura Olin’s newsletter).

3. And finally, this was fascinating and really humane (and I learned about ancient “sky burials,” which sound awesome). To Be a Field of Poppies: The elegant science of turning cadavers into compost

 

Wholesome Tweets

By in gram time

This is a wholesome (and massive) thread of people who cave to their pets’ ridiculous demands. As someone who does this as well, I was delighted and reassured:

 

Some highlights:

“The Fall Regression”

By in burn out

via

Anne Helen Petersen wrote a newsletter this week about “a blob of amorphous unease” that had been growing all month, and the feeling of no progress:

The calendar moves forward but we’re stuck. In old patterns, in old understandings of how work and our families and the world should be. That’s the feeling of regression, I think. It’s not that we’re losing ground. It’s that we were too hopeful about having gained it.

I’ve felt the same way, steadily growing for a month. I chalked it up to the change of season, but then I started thinking about refinancing the mortgage and it all kind of fell apart: Where do we want to be? How do we get there? What do I want to do? If it’s not what I’m doing, how do I do something else? What about money? What about the future?  Why is it all so difficult?

Petersen talks a lot about community in general, and ends the newsletter with saying her October regression feels “so much less swallowing when shared.” I guess if nobody know what they’re doing, then not knowing what you’re doing yourself isn’t as big of a deal. We’re all just figuring out what to do with our boulders together.

 

 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Card-again

By in sewing, Tuesday Project Roundup

I used to wear a cardigan over a t-shirt or turtleneck about every day in high school. I don’t know why I stopped–style change, I guess–but 20-something years later, I’ve rediscovered them. This time, of course, I’m making them:

This one is out of a gorgeous German cotton sweater knit from Jumping June Textiles (I got a lucky remnant) and the pattern is the Marlo Sweater from True Bias. Looking at mine vs. the pattern pic, I clearly ignored the suggested button placement, but it’s fine. No issues sewing or fitting, although this knit is drapier than the stable knit the pattern calls for.

Cardigans are great for regulating heat as you move around or the house warms up during the day (how had I forgotten this?). I already have another longer one planned in polar fleece–gotta make up for lost time.

Seasonal Activities

By in Skyler, weekend report

We had some good weather yesterday and hadn’t done anything with our nephew in a while, so we spent an afternoon at a local…Halloween/fall extravaganza? Its official name is “Kuwahara’s Pumpkin Patch & Thriller Park,” it had the production values of your local high school theater class, and it was great.

(In fairness to the production values, I think a lot of it was meant to be seen at night, with people popping out from the pumpkins to scare you, but I liked it during the day.)

As aunt and uncle, we’re contractually obliged to buy Skyler whatever he wants on these outings, and this time he wanted a 42-pound pumpkin. This is why I work out.

1 2 3