“if all you needed to get fat was eat an order of pancakes we’d all be fucked” by Natalie Dee

Well, well, [...]]]>
Climb on your bathroom vanity and do your daily affirmations like this awesome young lady! I’m not a huge “affirmation” person but this is too cute.

“if all you needed to get fat was eat an order of pancakes we’d all be fucked” by Natalie Dee

Well, well, well…isn’t this interesting…
Bri from Fat Lot of Good links to a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association written by Professor Paul O’Brien, gastric banding advocate, in which he admits his failure to report financial disclosure in his study of gastric banding in adolescents. Professor O’Brien receives significant financial compensation from Allergan, the manufacturer of the gastric band. NOW TELL ME THAT THIS DUDE IS IN IT FOR PEOPLE’S HEALTH! What kind of doctor tells people that teenagers should undergo a hugely invasive procedure that will have negative impact on their lifelong health and lies about receiving funding from the manufacturer of the product he installs in people? A doctor who has questionable ethics, and a doctor who will never be charged with the care of my health.

The Secret Life of Burnout
I seem to burn myself out frequently, so I really REALLY appreciate this post on The Fluent Self. It’s funny how working so hard that you end up burning out is seen as this noble thing, and it’s NOT healthy at all. We should be recognising our limits, not shoe-horning things into our schedules until we reach breaking point. As a self-employed creative I feel like I have something to prove so I often take on more than I can handle… and it’s got to stop. I’ve got to start managing my workload in a way that doesn’t lead to feeling like I’m going to crumble under the weight of it all. If you’re a boss of people, I hope you read this and shift your expectations of your staff.

Hilarious! By CodeAires on tumblr.

The politics of the pocket
When I talk to women who don’t believe feminism is necessary I am fairly aghast because symptoms of oppression and the gender binary are as apparent as the clothes we are wearing.

Bras: Expensive, hard to find, hard to fit.
AND ANOTHER THING! Bras. The bane of my existence. Bras make me cry: shopping for them, paying for them, wearing them. Being fat and having a large cup size means that I pay at least 5 times as much for a bra than a straight sized person, because I can’t just go and get my size from Target and pay $15 for it. Oh no. World, are you hearing me? You force me to wear one of these painful contraptions and I have to pay a bollocks load for the displeasure. >:(

Slam poet Katie Makkai and her powerful piece “Pretty”.

DIY Clothes Tutorial: Making an Elastic Harness
I kind of love the idea of making one of these elastic harnesses especially since I’ve NEVER seen a fat person in one of these trend pieces.

Past & Present: Paisley on Design*Sponge
If you’re interested in the history of the [...]]]>
Print & Pattern
This book has been curated by Bowie Style, the author of the Print & Pattern blog which was one of the first blogs I ever subscribed to via RSS!

Past & Present: Paisley on Design*Sponge
If you’re interested in the history of the paisley motif and issues of cultural appropriation, you should check this out for starters. You might get an insight into why I find paisley so fascinating!

Tibetan sky burial photographs
A huge warning here – these photos depict death and gore, do not click if you prefer not to see photos of that nature. I’m fascinated with death and ritual, and how different people have developed their traditions in line with their worldview and environmental considerations. This Buddhist burial ritual is shocking to me as a white person in a first world country, whose only dealings with death have been quite sanitary and polite, however I can also see the beauty in the sky burial. I don’t believe in resurrection or an afterlife or reincarnation, but I do believe that we are all returned to the earth and this tradition is very much in line with my worldview.

SP 2010 Speaker – Jessica Hische from Semi Permanent on Vimeo.

I love Jessica’s work and her sense of humour. I wish I’d been at Sydney’s Semi-Permanent conference, the line up was fantastic!

Unretouched Photos: Empowering or Just More ‘Empower-tainment’?
A really interesting commentary from the Ms. Magazine blog on the slew of unretouched photos and plus size models seen in mainstream magazines recently. I haven’t said much on the issue because I’m curious to see what happens next, but for a lot of media observers it has just been a bunch of “empower-tainment” porn rather than meaningful progression and discussion about body image.

Adventures in Feministory: Estelle Getty
I miss seeing Sophia Petrillo on tv. Why don’t we see any amazing stereotype-busting roles featuring older women these days, especially after Golden Girls?

Also Roseanne. Just because I felt like it! How amazing was she? Wait, don’t answer that, just repeat after me: VERY.

The Alot is Better Than You at Everything
Let Hyperbole and a Half help you with your pesky Alot problems! I get so many chortles out of this blog – if you’re not subscribed, what the hell are you still doing reading my blog?

1. Lady Gaga! She’s challenging and presents thoughtful art to the [...]]]> I’m joining in on the Five Faves bandwagon, as started by the lovely Pip at Meet Me At Mikes. I am tardy, as per usual because I am busy and important (tongue firmly planted in cheek, watch it sprout!)

1. Lady Gaga! She’s challenging and presents thoughtful art to the world. I just like her, is all.

2. Discovering blogs. I’m so pleased with the explosion of fatshion blogs on this here internets, here are some I’ve come across this week: Chubble Bubble, The Full Nilson, Buttons, Bows & Brogues, and Pretty in Plus.

3. Watch the baby piglet bliss out in his little spa. Truly adorable!

4. Space. I wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, but in high school I was dissuaded from pursing science and physics. In the last few years I’ve caught up a little and renewed my love for physics and cosmology. Nick and I watched the launch of the Discovery the other night and it was breathtaking (literally). I can’t believe there are only three more missions before the NASA space programme is put on hold. I hope they move on to even more exciting things and that this isn’t the end of space exploration and research.

5. Shoes! I only wish I could wear high heels without feeling like my arches are going to implode! I may just be able to wear these Evans heels, as they’re more than wide enough for my foot, but I’m too nervous to buy them and find out. So I’ll just pine after them for five minutes and move on!

Join the shenanigans here!
(You’ll see I entered the url for my post in all arse-about-face, oops.)

The other day when I was getting ready to go out I thought I’d record my ritual. This is my “bare minimum” face for being presentable outside my house and I’ve done it since I was in my teens. I have acne that is impervious to over the counter treatments (believe me, I’ve wasted [...]]]>

The other day when I was getting ready to go out I thought I’d record my ritual. This is my “bare minimum” face for being presentable outside my house and I’ve done it since I was in my teens. I have acne that is impervious to over the counter treatments (believe me, I’ve wasted so much money!) so make up has always been my mask. I feel very self conscious if I am without foundation and in a way, it is quite limiting having this anxiety about showing my real face. I guess this video is about unveiling my mask and my ritual, more than anything.

The song “Marie-Claire” is by Elfes, and the lyrics are in French but when I passed them through Google Translate (I hope that link works!) they spoke about body image anxiety – so I thought it was rather appropriate!

What makes you happy? – shot on 5DMKII from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

@thedesignfiles posted a link to one of Jon Rawlinson’s short films, Kuroshio Sea (which is also awesome, check it out) and being the curious cat that I am I clicked onto the next video which [...]]]>

What makes you happy? – shot on 5DMKII from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

@thedesignfiles posted a link to one of Jon Rawlinson’s short films, Kuroshio Sea (which is also awesome, check it out) and being the curious cat that I am I clicked onto the next video which posed the question, “What makes you happy?”

A few years ago now, I used to have a VW Beetle, and I would ponder the question of happiness a lot as I drove late at night. Back then, my list of things that made me happy included:

• A full tank of petrol
• A full packet of ciggies (sigh, oh the past!)
• Driving home after a lovely night with my friends
• Singing songs really loud (my Beetle didn’t have a radio!)
• Driving the bug

Right now, I have a very bland sort of car and while it’s very reliable and doesn’t strand me on scary motorways in the middle of the night (with no mobile phone credit, I had to flag down a stranger!) it doesn’t really give me any happiness. I absolutely hated breaking down all the time in Poberty Jane (my bug) but driving it was thrilling and engaging. In a new car there doesn’t seem to be any kind of engagement or thrill (unless you buy something really fast, fancy and expensive!)

So, the things that make me happy must surely have shifted. I met and married Nick since those times, and I have embarked on a career as a graphic artist and designer. So let’s revisit the happy list, yeah?

Things that make me happy, 2009

• Solving a design problem
• Laughing with my family and friends
• Emptying my pencil sharpener
• Absent-minded doodling
• Stimulating conversation
• Seeing new places and exploring them by foot (like waterfalls!)
• Writing something that reflects how I feel as accurately and succinctly as possible
• Learning new things
• Collaborating with people
• Making beautiful food
• Expressing myself through personal styling (I hate to use the term “fashion” since styling one’s identity extends beyond that!)
• Meeting people I connect with
• Cracking jokes that people laugh at

I guess I could go on and on… and I feel pretty grateful for that! What makes you happy?

⇒ I said it on tumblr, and I’ll say it here: So fancy it makes my eyes water. Via Design*Sponge.

⇒ Lady Agnew by John Singer Sargent. I saw a few of [...]]]>
⇒ My friend Pete posted this video on twitter yesterday, it’s just gorgeous!

⇒ I said it on tumblr, and I’ll say it here: So fancy it makes my eyes water. Via Design*Sponge.

⇒ Lady Agnew by John Singer Sargent. I saw a few of Sargent’s paintings last Friday night, in the flesh!

⇒ Now that I have my Nana’s display cabinet here, I can start saving up so I can collect tea cups like this one from Vandelized Vintage! (Gifts of said tea cups always graciously accepted, teehee!)

⇒ This is by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir… and one day I want to do my hair like this. Incredible.

⇒ I have no information on this photo. All I know is that it’s the fanciest thing on earth.

I just realised I forgot to update y’all with my Bridge to Brisbane debriefing! You can watch the end of this video to see my footage, as well as things that fill my heart with glee.

You can see that I was true [...]]]>

I just realised I forgot to update y’all with my Bridge to Brisbane debriefing! You can watch the end of this video to see my footage, as well as things that fill my heart with glee.

You can see that I was true to my word, and wore a tutu! Nick and I are totally going to participate in more fun runs from now on but I think I enjoyed it a little more than him. He brought up the rear, finishing a whole 4 or so seconds after me! I would like to step up my pace next time – a few of the #btub crew participated in the B2B so it was more of a social dawdle.

If you want to support my fundraising for JDRF, you’ve only got a couple of weeks to donate before they close my page. Go here now to donate! I’ve raised over $100 so far which is more than I’ve ever raised for anything in my life, but considering that my target was $1000 it seems kind of paltry!

Last week was insanely busy, and one of the highlights (of my LIFE) was seeing Aimee Mann at the Powerhouse! I never thought I’d get the chance to see her come to Australia, but I’m glad to be proven wrong! She was fantastic! If you haven’t heard her music, go out and buy all her albums. Her music has pretty much been the soundtrack to the last decade of my life :D

I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with using wood as a support, and I bought a big piece of plywood from Bunnings weeks ago but hadn’t had the time to cut it up or paint any of my ideas for personal work. This week I’ve decided is my [...]]]>

I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with using wood as a support, and I bought a big piece of plywood from Bunnings weeks ago but hadn’t had the time to cut it up or paint any of my ideas for personal work. This week I’ve decided is my week; on Monday I got electrocuted by our crappy circuit reset button (and the power died too) then I went over to use Kate‘s powertools to cut up the plywood! Horah! Last night I sanded back and stained a couple of the boards and recovered from my day (no, really I was totally ok – minor shock). Yesterday I painted up one drawing I had in my sketchbook for a month or so and took a little video and did awesomely scintillating live-action updates with my mobile phone.

I like to document the process, just so I can go back later and revise what I’ve done so I know better for next time. A few people say they actually enjoy the updates too!

Here’s the video! The music is really cute, it’s by Julandrew and it’s called “Get Back In Line“. I was introduced by Melissa to Creative Commons music and I’m really impressed by some of the things I’ve found! Also, it’s nice being able to use music in a video without worrying that anyone will sue you.