At my last UpMarket someone asked me about the metaphysical properties of a particular stone and I said I didn’t know them. She kind of chided me and said that I was supposed to know these things. I felt shamed and at the same time didn’t have the heart to tell her that I don’t really believe that gemstones have healing and/or other properties.
I’ve been open to it and I’ve tried crystal therapy but I didn’t see it working for me. I can get behind a lot of things. I don’t have to understand how it works. But crystals just don’t do it for me. But I can’t tell my customers that. They believe in it. So I just say nothing.
When I write about jewellery stuff I always think, this is boring people Natasha nobody cares about this. I know just because I find shit like this fascinating it doesn’t mean other people do.
Sometimes I just don’t know what to write about because when you do something creative for a living, especially when it’s your full time job, AND when you work from home and therefore spend most of the time alone, you become kind of enveloped in it. It consumes you. And it tends to be all you think about.
So when people ask me (politely) about work I really don’t say anything more than, oh it’s good. Cause I really don’t think people want to know any more than that. That’s why it feels like breathing air when I get to talk to someone who can relate. It doesn’t have to be jewellery. Just the creating for a living is enough. It’s not easy.
1. I’m pretty tall for a woman, I clock in at just under 5′10″. The really WEIRD thing about my height is that I LOOK a lot taller. I think it’s because my limbs are so long. But everyone always tends to assume I’m much taller until they stand next to me.
2. I have a mystery scar in the middle of my chest. It’s about two inches long and a perfectly straight line, somewhat indented. I noticed it when I was a girl one day and asked my parents where it came from and they had never seen it.
3. I have flat feet. They don’t seem like much of an issue but as you age it can really affect your spine, hips and knees.
4. I’m double jointed in my knees and fingers. They bend backwards. I have to be very aware of how I’m standing because it’s actually very comfortable for me to sink into my hips and hyperextend my knees. But I’m sure it also looks really weird so I try not to do it.
5. I have no feeling in my right knee. I got in a motorcycle accident when I was 19 and while the injures were relatively superficial, I suffered nerve damage. Once it healed it was numb. I can actually stick in pin in it and not feel anything. It feels really uncomfortable when I kneel and I don’t like anything touching it. I can feel underneath the layers of skin just not on top. It’s hard to describe.
6. I’ve mentioned this before but I have scoliosis. My spine isn’t straight. It’s painful for me and has gotten more so over the years, so I pretty much live with pain every day. I just deal with it for the most part.
7. I started going grey when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I found my first grey hair when I was 14. I was, naturally, horrified.
8. I have a very high threshold for pain apparently. I’ve had my wisdom teeth taken out and gone back to work right after. I seem to heal from injuries remarkably fast as well. I’ve had medical professionals react with surprise when they would see how quickly I recover. It’s a little weird but I’m grateful for it.
Thanks for the ask! It was a challenge to think of all of these things but I had fun doing it.
omg I had no idea some of those lyrics were so explicit! Gyaaaad! That shit is so fucking tacky!!!!! Whatever happened to suggestion? What kind of person listens to… you know what nevermind I already know.
Purple: 10 facts about my room
Blue: 9 facts about my family
Green: 8 facts about my body
Yellow: 7 facts about my childhood
Orange: 6 facts about my home town
Red: 5 facts about my best friend
Pink: 4 facts about my parents
White: 3 facts about my personality
Grey: 2 facts about my favorite things
Black: 1 fact about the person I like
Someone seems to be doing work on a property nearby and they’ve been blasting their shitty dancehall music all week. I love dancehall but the old school stuff. This kind just sounds like someone wailing into a microphone. Why do people who insist on blasting their music always have such horrible taste? It’s been a week of torture. Jesus make it stop already.
Chris ran into a friend of ours last night and he told him that he and his fiancee had broken up (it was not a surprise). He jokingly told Chris to let me know gently. For some reason he thinks I’ll be disappointed. But the truth is that I never liked the fiancee… Should I tell him or should I keep my mouth shut? There’s no chance of them getting back together but they are still friends.
#goldfilled #bracelets in #agate #turquoise #jasper and #druzy. Available this Saturday at #upmarket Trinidad & Tobago Country Club, Maraval #trinidad #handmade #caribbean
Don’t hold together what must fall apart. The familiar life crumbles so the new life can begin.
Coined by Asian-American actress and comedian Margaret Cho, #whitewashedOUT is a rallying cry against the erasure of Asian actors and roles which also coincides with Asian-Pacific-American Heritage Month. One response tweet shows exactly how white people should respond to this fight.
I was listening to BBC Radio today and they were doing a segment on the US elections focusing in particular on Donald Trump.
I was quite fascinated by what his supporters had to say:
I know he’s said negative things about women but-
He hasn’t said anything about immigrants in the past month he’s focusing on foreign policy now
He’s the only person who can bring back jobs to America
Cruz was talking about building the wall too
People are apparently willing to excuse all of the sexist, racist, xenophobic, bigoted, disrespectful statements he has made over the course of his campaign in exchange for believing in his watery rhetoric. It boggles my mind that a man so uncouth and classless should be considered a fitting candidate for a position as dignified as POTUS.
My God the lengths people will go to to ignore what is right in front of their faces.
For some reason I was in the slowpoke, talking on the phone, going nowhere in a hurry, let’s all drive the same speeds and block everybody lanes today. I was literally gritting my teeth and gripping the steering wheel as hard as I could so I wouldn’t lose it on the road today.
I think I need to hire an errand boy. This is too much stress.
I fucked up one of those bar necklaces today. A gold one. I mean I could have given it to the customer the way it was it didn’t look bad but I wasn’t happy with it. So I’m gonna see if I can pound some texture into it and make myself a necklace with it. Steups.
Chris is bringing home Wendy’s for dinner and yay cause I don’t have to cook and yay cause who doesn’t love burgers?
We got a new duvet cover for our bed and it is so pretty! It looks like navy blue with white batik. It’s still in the box. Clean sheet day is gonna be tomorrow.
John McCain’s son, Jack McCain, responds to racists who took “offense” to the Old Navy interracial family advertisement.
Can we also talk about how that woman said “you couldn’t get a white woman”, like white women are the tip top of the racial scale and are a prize to be had. Basically insinuating Black Women are sloppy seconds #NotHereForIt. Great clapback, Jack. Classy and to the point.
I think it’s safe to assume there are far more garbage people with backwards, evil ideologies roaming around than any of us want to accept. And they’re all voting for Trump.
I can’t even begin to comment on what that woman said. Like, where do you even start with that kind of thinking?
First session, gypsy butterfly girl done by Mario Deggett @ Holistic Tattoo North Hollywood, CA
[witches are] the embodiment of a world of female subjects that capitalism had to destroy: the heretic, the healer, the disobedient wife, the woman who dared to live alone, the obeah woman who poisoned the master’s food.
Sylvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (via thoughtsforbees)
Chris usually falls asleep way earlier than me, leaving me with alone time to do important things like scroll tumblr. He couldn’t sleep tonight and it really threw me off my nightly ritual. And now y’all all gone to sleep.
I’ve heard “good hair” been used to describe “mixed” hair as well as white people’s hair. In Beyonce’s context I basically understood she was (most likely) referring to a white woman since it was prefaced with “Becky”. Also since I started locs 4 years ago I’ve gotten “But why? You have good hair!” quite a lot, mostly from people who are more visibly black than I am. Anything I do with my hair that is “too black” gets scrutinized I’ve realized.
Never heard it referenced to white people’s hair, that’s a first for me. So maybe it was a white girl I dunno
White privilege means no one makes a big deal about my type of hair. It must be so annoying to have random people have so many opinions about one’s hair
I never really thought about it that way… as being annoying? But I think what has bothered me is that in the past people have used MY hair, which would be considered “good hair” to justify their definition of me racially. Like, I can’t be black because I don’t have “black hair”. But I can also understand how someone can look at someone like myself who is obviously mixed and get confused by why I would choose to define myself as Black. So whatever.
I cannot say that I’ve had to deal with a lot of the crap that people with natural hair and locs have to deal with. People are not that fascinated by my hair, there’s nothing really that unusual about it. So I guess I’m grateful not to have hair that is so politicized.
I tell anyone that has pretty curly hair they have good hair just because that’s what I like. Don’t look twice at straight hair
Among people of African descent, having “good hair” means having hair that is not kinky, hair that is curly or approximating straight. It stems from slavery and colonialism and the idea that being mixed with (usually) white blood is more desireable. So it is a very loaded term. It is not generally used in reference to white people because by default whites have “good hair”. That’s why I reasoned that Becky was not a white girl.
I’m preparing for UpMarket and today the day has just flown by. I have glue all over my hands and spray paint on my feet. It’s been that kind of a day.
I’ve been watching some emergency supplies move through my freight forwarding company’s online system very anxiously. I really need these supplies for Saturday. It’s driving me nuts. I don’t know if they’ll get here in time or not
I’m going to attempt chicken Parmesan tonight with pasta Alfredo. Can’t be too hard right?
For some reason I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on my appearance in the past 48 hours. I’m feeling very cute right now.
I haven’t listened to Trini radio in like forever. The only time I used to listen to radio was in the car and now I stream podcasts from my phone instead. Local radio is too hard on my nerves smh. And like you said loud and aggressive �� (I have to listen to some radio for work in order to monitor what songs are hot for carnival but that is more and more tedious work every year smfh)
I rarely even listen to it in my car. I tend to listen to BBC News when I’m driving. I’ve always found the most soothing things to listen to when driving are talk radio and classical music. But since we have no classical music stations here I just stick with BBC. It IS hard on the nerves. It’s assaulting and when I’m driving I don’t need my nerves to be frazzled too.
I decided that instead of listening to NPR this morning I’d try some local radio so I found a stream and it’s on ads right now and I am just about ready to switch it off.
Trinidad radio ads are so assaulting. They’re so loud and aggressive.
When I worked at advertising we used to joke about doing an radio ad just filled with pleasant sounds like birds chirping, gently rolling waves upon the shore, something like that. And then at the end say something like, this moment of peace and quiet has been brought to you by __________. I don’t think anyone ever pitched it because I couldn’t imagine a single one of our clients going for it, they were too risk averse. But we sure fantasised about it.
It’s back on talk radio and now instead of assaulting me they’re boring me. I might have to switch on to NPR after all.
good morning everyone! i wrote this post because in the past few months, i’ve been encountering a lot of “progressive” West Indian women on social media saying things that are truly heinous & patriarchal. I think with this new wave of feminism being popular in the media, most people are not willing to look at THEMSELVES and hold themselves accountable for the ways they reinforce patriarchy…
I’m sure many West Indian men AND women as well can relate to the experiences in this post about the ways older West Indian women especially endorse patriarchy in their own lives and in their communities…
Click the link above to read more…
And a preview:
5. Encouraging Abuse/Violence In Relationships
Harsh and abusive disciplinary tactics are one of the ways abuse and violence is normalized. There’s a reason abusive behavior is often described as “cyclical”. The behavior we experience growing up is what is imitated later on in life. When emotionally or physically abusive behavior is the primary mode of “discipline” in a child’s life, it is difficult for them to function any other way as adults…
This relates to patriarchy because often times, abusive tactics are employed against boys in specific ways that numb them to emotional experiences, encourage a lack of empathy and foster abusive behavior later on. I have a number of examples to back this up but the most recent one happened just last week. I was shopping for new apartment decor and a woman was walking with her son (no older than five years old) and hitting him as they walked. Of course, as he was getting hit (hard) in public, he began to cry. As her son wailed at the top of his lungs, this woman shouted, “Stop being a wuss!”
Is it really “being a wuss” when a five year old starts to cry? Or are you holding him to a patriarchal male standard where he learns his own emotions (and therefore, the emotions of those around him) are unimportant? Another lesson this child could learn is that mocking/belittling someone’s emotions is a way to manipulate them into doing what you want. The lessons learned from this are not simple and neither are they short lived. This is not coming out of thin air either — this is backed by psychological research into child psychology as well as research into effects of upbringing on adult behavior.
Do you love handmade pottery, surprises, and discounts? Would you like to be the first to have my new designs?
Introducing ….. PotteryBox!
One of my favorite things is to experiment with new techniques, designs, tools and glazes. I have so many ideas of new things to make!
How does this work? Once a month I will post a limited quantity of “PotteryBoxes” exclusively for sale here on my website.
The price will be $35 (plus shipping) and will include a beautiful SURPRISE piece of my functional pottery worth at least $50 OR MORE (not including the shipping cost).
You will not get to choose what it is, the color, or things like that, but I promise it will be a one-of-a-kind work of art …and it may end up being your favorite piece of pottery.
The “PotteryBox” will be available for purchase on the first of the month and will ship out by the last day of the month. This will give me enough time to be my happy creative self while making the pottery. Then I will gift wrap it and ship it out to you.
The result: > I will get to be extra creative, plus it will keep my studio clear of built up pottery experiments. >> YOU will get a newly designed, one-of-a-kind, piece of handmade pottery at a super discounted price. It will be gift wrapped, and delivered right to your door … or you can send it to a friend!
Follow me on INSTAGRAM to see HINTS of what I am working on for the month!!
Makes a great gift for yourself, or for someone you love!!
Trinidad and Tobago’s 4x100m Women Win Bronze At Penn Relays.
T&T’s relay team comprising of Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Khalifa St Fort got the baton round the track in 43.43s to finish third at the Penn Relays in Pennsylvania, USA, over the weekend.
Siblings: Two with my parents, half sister with my dad.
Pets: Chris has fish. Does that count as pets? Not to me at any rate you should be able to pet a pet. Nah none right now.
Wake up: Usually around 6:30-7. Not that I always STAY up.
Go to bed: Depends sometimes really early like 9:30 but usually after midnight
Phone type: iPhone 6
Love or lust: Love! Love with lust is even better!
Lemonade or iced tea: I drink a lot more iced tea than lemonade. I find it’s hard to find really good lemonade that doesn’t taste artificial.
Cats or dogs: Omg dogs dogs dogs. I like cats, but I LOVE dogs.
Coke or Pepsi: what is pepsi
Make-up or natural: I like makeup that looks natural
Day or night: Jesus I’d never go out during the day if I didn’t have to. I love the night.
Intelligence or physical attractiveness: Definitely intelligence. I mean I have to be attracted to you physically too, but intelligence can make an average person look really attractive. Conversely, stupidity does the opposite.
Chapstick or lipstick: Lip stain!
City or country: I’m definitely a city girl. I like to country vibe as a retreat but I love the hustle and bustle of a city.
Thanks for tagging me! If you’d like to play along consider yourself tagged
White privilege is being a 21-year-old loser who plots and kills 9 people in their church and when you are confronted by the police, armed, you survive without incident. Later, when you’re escorted to the police station, you are not handcuffed and you even have a bulletproof vest for protection. Meanwhile, the media is already infantilizing you and blaming your actions on anything other than you, even though you planned this attack for 6 months. No one is asking why White men are so violent when 87% of mass killings in America have been committed by White men and nobody’s calling you a terrorist when your very intent was to cause terror.
Why does no one ask what it is about white culture and white people that makes their men so violent?
If white culture isn’t at fault, why does it produce so many mass murderers and shooters?
You know when you fall into a nice peaceful sleep and then something happens to wake you up and after that you’re simultaneously wired and tired and can’t go back to sleep?
When I taught university English back in the day as part of my grad school requirements, I was totally shocked at how basic the students’ writing skills were. And those were the ones who graduated highschool with good enough grades to get into university!
Actually that sounds familiar. My dad taught at my university as a guest lecturer for a semester. His class was only open to juniors and seniors. He told me he could believe the quality of the papers he would get. He didn’t understand how someone could graduate from high school and get through two years of university and write like that. So I suppose I should lower my bar huh?
To promote the bar necklaces I took out an ad on Facebook and because I don’t post prices I’ve been getting a lot of enquiries via fb messenger.
I have to say I’m shocked by how terribly people write. Really poor grammar, terrible spelling, many people just write like they’re texting. I suppose because no one I know ever texts/ messages like that it’s kind of jarring. I don’t know what to think but I’m really appalled if this is the result of our educational system.
The one year anniversary of opening my online store is coming up in June. I was thinking of doing a special tumblr giveaway just because you guys have been so incredibly wonderful and supportive of me and my business. If there’s any item in particular you would like me to feature for the giveaway please give me your suggestions!
Just finished one! I’m thinking I might be keeping this 🙂 I have four more for you guys! #necklace #quartz #arrowhead #crystal #gunmetal #smokeyquartz #turquoise #moonstone #handmade #trinidad #caribbean
Hi im Sage Adams im 19 years old and recently I was given an ultimatum that forced me to move out of my family home. It is the end of he semester and I fully expected to be able to move back into my house with the help of my family, but things change. I am asking for this money so that I am able to get back and forth using the train for job interviews, shoots, looking for sublets and so I can buy art supplies and refill my medications as well as eat for the month of may and possibly June. Anyone who knows me or follows me is aware of my struggle with mental health as well as my desire to make the world a better place. I want to be able to keep working with the collective and making art, but I need to start to establish independence and get my own place and figure out how to pay for school on my own. This money will help me land on my feet in terms of getting back to the city and finding a job that makes me happy (not anxious or depressed) AND that makes me money. I want to avoid taking out loans until I get a job (so i dont ruin my credit) Please only donate if it is within your means. feel free to DM or message me if/when you have donated.I love you guys, and thank you for loving me/supporting me/believing in me. (also if you are in NYC and hiring/know someone pleeeeease hit me up)
Pierre Jean-Louis is a multimedia artist based in New York and Philadelphia, who has built up quite a social media following as a result of his unique works. Jean-Louis paints mystical images of the universe and nature onto images of Black women’s natural hair. His intricate works feature flowers, vines, and even an entire forest, all seamlessly woven into coils and kinks. Jean-Louis even invites his followers to tag him in their photos on Instagram so that he can consider their portraits as well.
My five year old niece recently told her father that God isn’t real. Santa gives gifts, tooth fairy money, Easter bunny eggs. She does not see what God gives.
I got some quartz arrowheads today and they look so damn cool I’m gonna make myself a necklace tomorrow. I don’t actually make a lot of jewelry for myself. I’m very minimalist and tend to wear the same pieces over and over again. But I’m really digging these pieces. Pics to follow.
I’m having a nice buttery, salty baked potato to make up for that disaster of a burger. Well it was just half a burger. Thank god. If I had to eat the whole thing I’d have asked for a gun and shot myself.
soulsistrin 