definatalie.com

June is serious business. In Australia, June is the time for stock take and if you are an employee who has to do end-of-financial-year activities (like my husband!) it really sucks. Even though I have a creative job, I am feeling the pressure… I’m in the middle of setting a business up, and also fielding enquiries and doing lots of work within my creative practice – which I run like a business as well. Sometimes I just want to run away and forget about everything for a few hours, and I guess I get these sort of visions in my head. Sort of like Mary Poppins on a carousel in the Red Queen’s garden.

To download June’s desktop, find the one that suits your resolution and click on the image to go download the original size:

1600 x 1200

1680 x 1050 – widescreen

320 x 480 – iPhone

240 x 320

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
You may not upload this desktop to other websites, nor may you use it for any other purpose than to wallpaper your desktop. This also means it’s uncool to alter it and reupload it somewhere as your own work. Soz

The other week you would have read my adoration for Heidi, an amazing person and blogger. I have never met anyone who discusses their life and its trials so openly, and she has been a big role model for me when it comes to “opening up”.

The other night, something terrible happened. Her father committed suicide in their home, and Heidi found his body. Every time I think about it tears come to my eyes and I selfishly put myself in her position – it makes me feel so many emotions… but I know I probably wouldn’t have felt I could reach out to my friends all over the world from my blog. I love that Heidi did, and still does, because I know she’s in trouble and needs help… emotionally and financially.

She has to, quite literally, clean up the mess. Some of her local friends contacted a local cleaning agency, Crime Scene Steri-Clean, who have been absolutely brilliant in helping her deal with the situation but there are unavoidable costs that her friends are hoping to help her with. If you’re in a position to help, Heidi has put up a PayPal button on her blog, but she also adores handwritten letters. You can find the details here.

I love you Heidi, I wish I could fly over and give you a hug and a kiss.

I think I am in a holding pattern right now. So I’m trying to keep a little momentum up by defacing frankie pages with my doodling.

If you’re still devoting your lunch break to clicking through bookmarks just in case your favourite blogs have been updated, this blog post is for you. I have been on this here internets for a long time, so subscribing to blogs and doing other internetty things is like second nature to me. I always forget that there are people out there who might not have had so much experience online, so I thought a brief post on how you can keep up with definatalie.com and your other favourite blogs was in order, especially considering there are some new services available that help you manage your blog subscriptions.

My favourite service is Google Reader and if you’ve already got a Google account (for example, do you use Gmail?) chances are your Reader account is ready to go. There are quite a few other feed readers out there, web and desktop based, however most of my subscribers use Google’s services (Reader or iGoogle).

How to subscribe to a blog with Google Reader

Because blogs are driven by crazy, awesome, individual.. uh… individuals there’s no standard way to just hit a button and subscribe. The things you can look out for are:

♡ This cute little RSS symbol. You might find it within the page design, or on the top right of the address bar in your browser. (I use Firefox for Mac with the Anna Sui persona!)

♡ The abbreviation “RSS”, which stands for Really Simple Syndication. I’ve screencapped the “Meta” section from The Rotund, a blog I’ve been meaning to subscribe to for ages!

♡ The word “Subscribe” as hyperlinked text or an image (my blog hyperlinks an image with “Subscribe” hand written by me).

If I click on a hyperlinked RSS text or image, I’m taken to this page (click to embiggen), where Google asks me how I’d like to subscribe to the feed. I choose Reader, because all of my subscriptions are there and I don’t use the iGoogle/ Google Homepage service. It’s up to you to choose!

From there you’ll be able to build up your subscriptions, and browsing the latest entries from all the blogs you used to run around visiting will be as easy as visiting one site!

Other ways to keep up with definatalie.com

A few weeks ago I set up my blog on NetworkedBlogs, which is a facebook application that allows you to read all your blogs without leaving the snuggly comfort of facebook. Follow my blog with NetworkedBlogs.

For those of you who like using Livejournal to read RSS feeds, you can watch the syndicated feed on LJ. Follow my blog with the Livejournal syndicated feed.

Just before I claimed my blog on bloglovin’ because I found out through my Analytics stats that people had already begun subscribing to me through the service. Follow my blog with bloglovin´.

Most websites are jumping on the RSS wagon so subscribe to all of your blogs today and free up your lunch hour for actually having fun! (Can I suggest hijinx in the tearoom, or laps around the carpark?)

Amaya asked me if I’d write up a post about the contraversial ad created by The Foundry for The Gruen Transfer’s Pitch segment. I said “heck yes” and put on my fat activist (or, FATSPERT!) hat.

You can read the post over at nerdgirlarmy.com – Gruening with flaws: fat acceptance in Australia.

In this exciting installment I divulge five more names from my list of the world’s up and coming awesome folk. They dabble in writing, modelling, designing, entrepreneurship, art and being pretty cool.

Heidi – writer and fat celebrity

Heidi has to be one of the sweetest and most honest people I have ever met, even if we’ve only hung out via email and IM and never shared a coffee. Over the past few years, Heidi is one of the amazing people who have provided me with support and love, not just for my career but personally and emotionally too. Last year I collaborated with her to create the “Pretty Face” t-shirts – a reaction to one of the lines often heard by fat people. Dammit, of course I have a pretty face, there are no buts! (You can buy the Pretty Face shirts from her etsy store!)

Chloe McGenn – artist

Chloe started painting last year, and I have been amazed at her progression! She paints cupcakes and animals and other things in a very whimsical and colourful style, and is now selling greeting cards with prints of her original artwork on them.

Anekie – model and designer

Ms Anekie is a most delightful young lady, with various talents that extend to being incredibly photogenic and creating beautiful garments. She also has a kick arse sense of humour – something I rate very highly! See the dress in this photo? Anekie made it and modeled it, and Kate took it… it’s amazing to know I live so close to such talent.

Jesha Rowlands – t-shirt entrepreneur for Owl Movement

I have only known Jesha for a short period of time and already knew how great she was, but it was only recently that I discovered that she ran Owl Movement: a t-shirt company that specialises in chronically adorable gear for your top half. Because I am totally the sort of person who is impressed by this kind of thing… Owl Movement’s shirts have been worn on tv shows like Veronica Mars, VH1’s Best Week Ever and Top Chef!

Natalie Tan – illustrator

I met Natalie through Tumblr only in the last few months, but I very quickly came to adore her personality and her illustrative style. There’s a lot to be said for young women who put it all on the line, and I think Ms Tan’s star will rise pretty high because of her kick arse attitude.

People often tell me that I’m “so creative” and that they wish they could be “gifted” in similar ways. When I thank them and tell them that I’m still learning and that they can probably draw too, they usually look at the ground, put their hands in their pockets and kick at something imaginary on the floor while telling me wistfully that they simply don’t have the talent. To which I say with much enthusiasm “THAT’S CRAP!”

I have always believed that everyone can learn artistic techniques that will help them fully utilise their creativity, it’s just that the culture we’re in seems to dictate that art is some kind of flight of fancy that isn’t very useful at all; hence it isn’t developed as a priority in school curriculum. I even went to uni with the intention of becoming an art teacher so I could try and teach young people that, but quickly discovered that I wasn’t going to change the world in the ways that I had so naively assumed

Kirby Ferguson from Goodie Bag has an awesome name. He also has a point. You should watch the above video and be enlightened; then you should write a list of all of the things you’ve wanted to do but thought you couldn’t – and then set off on your 10,000 hours of practice.

Nothing is stopping you, except a little bit of hard work (and PS: I’m still doing my hours!)

I have discovered that a big part of what I do involves buttloads of time and love. People must think I’m crazy for spending hours drawing tiny lines or baking things from scratch, but it’s one of the only ways my primitive consciousness knows how to properly convey love and affection. A small part of me frets that people don’t value what I do – I worry that people throw away the things I make for them as if they were Hallmark products, but in the end I have no control over that. The only thing I really have control over is my love, and even if they did throw away my gifts I’d still spend time making them.

I have been incredibly busy lately, which is awesome, but I fell behind in making cards for Mother’s Day. So yesterday was spent drawing furiously… and making cupcakes. I finished icing the cupcakes and gluing the cards about half an hour before we left to have lunch at my sister’s place today… I was frazzled and half resentful because I feared how my gifts would be received. I needn’t have worried – my family always appreciate what I do, and I am so grateful for that because otherwise I’d be one bitter headcase

Thanks to the women in my life, including most of all – my Mum and Nana. You are brilliant, and my very limited vocabulary can not express how much I am indebted to you for helping me become who I am.

If you want to show someone you really think they are tops but you can’t express it in words, print off this recipe and make them some amazing cupcakes. They’ll get it

Photo by Kate O’Brien

I haven’t spoken much about body issues here, or about how I’m a fat advocate, but I figure this is as good a platform as any to discuss my own issues with fatness*. It is not acceptable to pick on, alienate, ostracize or discriminate against fat people, and I’m continually astounded that it’s still seen as totally ok to do this – within the media and on a person to person basis. One of the things that really gets me going is the lack of a basic necessity for all humans who wish to participate in “civilised society” – clothing.

This year I have been focusing more on my fitness, and I have adopted a Health at Every Size approach to my exercising and general wellbeing. I don’t believe you need to be thin to be fit, and I’ve certainly proved to my new personal trainer that I am fitter than even she expected! I have been wearing a denim skirt to exercise in, but it limits movement and does not wick away perspiration. So I’ve been trying to find plus sized active wear… and surprise, surprise, it’s really hard. It makes me want to break my no swears rule! So instead, I’ll capslock…

WHY, IF SOCIETY WANTS ME TO BE THIN, CAN I NOT FIND CLOTHES TO EXERCISE IN? It just doesn’t make sense.

If alarmist news reports are worth believing, why is it still acceptable for retailers to relegate a mere 2 metres squared out of their hundreds of metres available to plus size clothing. Even worse – I have been into more than one retailer who puts the plus size clothes right next to active wear… WHERE YOU CAN’T BUY CLOTHES FOR EXERCISING IN A PLUS SIZE!!!!! I don’t get it. Are you trying to shame customers out of your store?! Do you not want my delicious fat dollar? That’s ok, I’ll take it overseas and buy things on the internet instead, even though I shouldn’t have to!

Another hilarious paradox is the odd abuse you’ll cop as an exercising fat person on the street. WTF? It’s hard to take the taunts seriously when you’re the dude who is literally treading the healthful path and your aggressor is sitting on their arse in a car (moving at 60 kph, what a chicken!)

Apparently there are retailers in the US who sell tights and sports bras online, but I refuse to accept that this is the only option. I am on a mission to bring well priced, great quality active gear for plus sized humans to Australia. If you can help, I would love to hear from you. If you are an Australian retailer already covering this angle, your marketing is not working. I can help you. (Also, I’m not talking about bike shorts that go to size 20 because the size bracket for fatness goes well beyond that – fatter people want to wear proper active wear as well!)

I have lots of fat friends. If you do right by us, we’ll do right by you! The Fatosphere is wider (lol) than designers, retailers and manufacturers realise.

* If you even think about commenting to tell me that fat is unhealthy, I will probably mock you into oblivion. Read this first and come back when you can comprehend your own bigotry.

I bought the domain eatsleepcupcake.com to start a group authored cupcake tumblr – for people who make cupcakes and like to show them off. Unfortunately I failed to realise that the submission tool used around tumblr is only for private beta testers, not for me, so my plan collapsed

Eat, Sleep, Cupcake is now running as a group tumblr, authored by Kathleen, Heather and myself. You’ll see photos of our baking, and our inspirations, as well as recipes we want to try out!

These were the most delicious Milo cupcakes ever, and the goodies in the first photo are cupcakes I’ve just finished making today! They’ve got crushed Tim Tam bits in them, and they’re iced with Cedar Creme liqueur.

So yeh, you should follow Eat, Sleep, Cupcake. The End!