I still have to set the stone but this was my final design. These little balls were a bitch. I had to go back and solder about six times to make sure they all stuck. There are a few gaps I noticed when I was cleaning it but I kind of like them so I’ll leave them. If I make it again I’ll leave more spaces. But I think I’m gonna call it a day and clean it up some more tomorrow before I set the stone.
My sister’s having a small casual wedding ceremony when we go up to Florida next month and I bought a three dresses online for the occasion. I returned one (well I didn’t actually return it, I explained to them I was overseas and they gave me the refund and let me keep it anyway thanks Amazon) and kept two. This one arrived yesterday and I just love it, it looks great on me. I know they say that women that are busty shouldn’t wear halter tops but I’ve always found them flattering on me. I have a good strapless bra that holds me up well but it’s painful as fuck in the ribs so I know I’ll be really glad to take it off, but at least I’ll be looking pretty while I have this on. Can’t wait to wear it. I need to make myself some earrings to go with it.
It’s a business thing, you know keeping up with your competition kind of thing, but it’s not healthy because I get pissed off every time I see one of their posts. Basic skills, horrible photography, and yet… they’re incredibly successful. Envy? Yeah a little. I’m baffled by their popularity (as are others). So I unfollowed. I feel better knowing I won’t be grinding my teeth anymore at their work.
I’ve also set my Netflix to British Netflix (my region is Latin America and honestly it kinda sucks) and I’ve been devouring Silk lately. If you want to watch a really fantastically acted British drama with a strong female lead, check it out.
I’ve been obsessed with British competition reality tv lately.
The Great British Bake Off has had me salivating and obsessed with trying new recipes.
The Great Pottery Throw Down makes me want to get back on the wheel and start doing ceramics again.
On top of that I find myself absorbing all the accents. Honestly I probably just need to get myself across the pond and immerse myself in the culture again. It’s been a while. Perfect excuse to visit my Irish half sister who lives in Oxfordshire. Oxfordshire. Can it possibly sound more English?
Excavated from the Malkata palace at Thebes, dating to the New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, circa 1390-1353 BC. Made of faience, bronze or copper alloy, glass, agate, carnelian, lapis lazuli and turquoise.
A menat necklace consists of a heavy, keyhole-shaped counterpoise (menat) and many strands of beads. Although the necklace is sometimes shown being worn, it was more often carried by females participating in religious ceremonies. It functioned as a percussion instrument that was shaken to create a soothing noise that was thought to appease a god or goddess. In the New Kingdom the menat necklace and the systrum were attributes of women who held the title “Singer of Amun-Re.”
I was just listing some new products on my site and I was trying to find a colour to describe these. The site I bought them from described them as purplish-red but I didn’t think that sounded right. I settled on cerise, a reddish, pinkish colour. What would you call them?
I bought my niece some headbands and she got them in the mail today. My sister just sent me a couple videos of her saying how much she liked them and stuff. I’m so excited I’m going to see her next month. I can’t wait!
Telling a woman who says she doesn’t want kids “You’ll change your mind” is really shitty because
it’s assigning motherhood to a person who is explicitly rejecting it
it’s reinforcing gender roles
it makes motherhood out to be something you do because you have to, not because you genuinely want to
it’s infantilizing to make it seem like she can’t make decisions about her own life
it’s invalidating of her desires which she is capable of knowing and communicating
it’s telling a grown woman that you know what she wants better than she does
Interestingly enough it’s mostly men that give me shit about this. Most women accept my choice and move on. The ones that don’t are either curious to my reasons or so in love with motherhood they’re incapable of imagining someone feeling differently. Men, however, can be incredibly patronising. They seem to think having a womb automatically equates to wanting to be a mother. And they seem to think they know more about having a womb than I do.
You are allowed to grieve the years you lost to mental illness. You’re allowed to be mad that it happened to you. You’re allowed to pine after the person you might have been had it been different. But don’t let that get in the way of your growing into your new self and following a wholly new path for your life.
i wonder if magic is real, but only in a really mundane way.
when i was little i could almost inerringly switch back to disney channel right as the ads ended when i was channel surfing.
maybe youve never accidentally crushed a ladybug underfoot. maybe your microwave popcorn never burns. maybe you can spin around lots and lots of times before you get dizzy.
is that magic??
honestly im not sure if these are magic or just small, invisible skills. im not sure which i like better.
My ankles never twist. I’ve always been rather active, I did track for five years (all the running events), and one time while running I stepped in a hole, lost my shoe, and landed sprawling about five feet away. I pulled my shoe on and kept running.
I have a coworker who somehow makes better coffee than everyone else even though the grounds come pre-measured and all you have to do is load them up and push a button. I have a friend who has inch long nails that never break. My brother can copy origami just by looking at the finished product and my mother can do the same with knots. I knew a guy who never made an error when typing.
Maybe we all have little magics, the kind that you don’t realize you have. Just tiny things that make your life slightly better but are completely unnoticed on the outside.
This action creates a structured, easy to use Photoshop template to help build typographic designs from your photos. The action wraps your text around your subject and comes with 20 paint textures and 6 background textures to help give your design a professional look. The action also creates 20 color variations giving you lots of control over the look of your design.
Ombré rose gold earrings. Had the idea for these in my mind all weekend. Finally got around to making them today. Really happy with the outcome 😀 #artisanjewelry #handmade #madeintrinidadandtobago
Me: Apparently SNL got it’s highest ratings in years because of Donald Trump.
Him: [angry grunt]
Me: America loves a trainwreck.
Him: I think at this point it’s safe to say that America *is* a trainwreck.
Willliamson Tea, Kenyan tea farmers since 1869, and creators of these awesome tea caddies featuring elephants that have long been a favorite of mine, have finally partnered with The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Yes, the group that saves orphaned baby elephants, rehabilitates them for years, and then ensures they are released into the wild when they are ready.
Kenyan tea farmers Williamson Tea have selected DSWT as their charity partner and we are thrilled to have their ongoing support. Enjoy a cup of tea and know that you are helping elephants in the process as £1 per tea caddy sold will be donated to us!
Here’s my life. My husband and I get up each morning at 7 o’clock and he showers while I make coffee. By the time he’s dressed I’m already sitting at my desk writing. He kisses me goodbye then leaves for the job where he makes good money, draws excellent benefits and gets many perks, such as travel, catered lunches and full reimbursement for the gym where I attend yoga midday. His career has allowed me to work only sporadically, as a consultant, in a field I enjoy.
All that disclosure is crass, I know. I’m sorry. Because in this world where women will sit around discussing the various topiary shapes of their bikini waxes, the conversation about money (or privilege) is the one we never have. Why? I think it’s the Marie Antoinette syndrome: Those with privilege and luck don’t want the riffraff knowing the details. After all, if “those people” understood the differences in our lives, they might revolt. Or, God forbid, not see us as somehow more special, talented and/or deserving than them.
There’s a special version of this masquerade that we writers put on. Two examples:
I attended a packed reading (I’m talking 300+ people) about a year and a half ago. The author was very well-known, a magnificent nonfictionist who has, deservedly, won several big awards. He also happens to be the heir to a mammoth fortune. Mega-millions. In other words he’s a man who has never had to work one job, much less two. He has several children; I know, because they were at the reading with him, all lined up. I heard someone say they were all traveling with him, plus two nannies, on his worldwide tour.
None of this takes away from his brilliance. Yet, when an audience member — young, wide-eyed, clearly not clued in — rose to ask him how he’d managed to spend 10 years writing his current masterpiece — What had he done to sustain himself and his family during that time? — he told her in a serious tone that it had been tough but he’d written a number of magazine articles to get by. I heard a titter pass through the half of the audience that knew the truth. But the author, impassive, moved on and left this woman thinking he’d supported his Manhattan life for a decade with a handful of pieces in the Nation and Salon.
Example two. A reading in a different city, featuring a 30-ish woman whose debut novel had just appeared on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. I didn’t love the book (a coming-of-age story set among wealthy teenagers) but many people I respect thought it was great, so I defer. The author had herself attended one of the big, East Coast prep schools, while her parents were busy growing their careers on the New York literary scene. These were people — her parents — who traded Christmas cards with William Maxwell and had the Styrons over for dinner. She, the author, was their only beloved child.
After prep school, she’d earned two creative writing degrees (Iowa plus an Ivy). Her first book was being heralded by editors and reviewers all over the country, many of whom had watched her grow up. It was a phenomenon even before it hit bookshelves. She was an immediate star.
When (again) an audience member, clearly an undergrad, rose to ask this glamorous writer to what she attributed her success, the woman paused, then said that she had worked very, very hard and she’d had some good training, but she thought in looking back it was her decision never to have children that had allowed her to become a true artist. If you have kids, she explained to the group of desperate nubile writers, you have to choose between them and your writing. Keep it pure. Don’t let yourself be distracted by a baby’s cry.
I was dumbfounded. I wanted to leap to my feet and shout. “Hello? Alice Munro! Doris Lessing! Joan Didion!” Of course, there are thousands of other extraordinary writers who managed to produce art despite motherhood. But the essential point was that, the quality of her book notwithstanding, this author’s chief advantage had nothing to do with her reproductive decisions. It was about connections. Straight up. She’d had them since birth.
In my opinion, we do an enormous “let them eat cake” disservice to our community when we obfuscate the circumstances that help us write, publish and in some way succeed. I can’t claim the wealth of the first author (not even close); nor do I have the connections of the second. I don’t have their fame either. But I do have a huge advantage over the writer who is living paycheck to paycheck, or lonely and isolated, or dealing with a medical condition, or working a full-time job.
How can I be so sure? Because I used to be poor, overworked and overwhelmed. And I produced zero books during that time. Throughout my 20s, I was married to an addict who tried valiantly (but failed, over and over) to stay straight. We had three children, one with autism, and lived in poverty for a long, wretched time. In my 30s I divorced the man because it was the only way out of constant crisis. For the next 10 years, I worked two jobs and raised my three kids alone, without child support or the involvement of their dad.
I published my first novel at 39, but only after a teaching stint where I met some influential writers and three months living with my parents while I completed the first draft. After turning in that manuscript, I landed a pretty cushy magazine editor’s job. A year later, I met my second husband. For the first time I had a true partner, someone I could rely on who was there in every way for me and our kids. Life got easier. I produced a nonfiction book, a second novel and about 30 essays within a relatively short time.
Today, I am essentially “sponsored” by this very loving man who shows up at the end of the day, asks me how the writing went, pours me a glass of wine, then takes me out to eat. He accompanies me when I travel 500 miles to do a 75-minute reading, manages my finances, and never complains that my dark, heady little books have resulted in low advances and rather modest sales.
I completed my third novel in eight months flat. I started the book while on a lovely vacation. Then I wrote happily and relatively quickly because I had the time and the funding, as well as help from my husband, my agent and a very talented editor friend. Without all those advantages, I might be on page 52. OK, there’s mine. Now show me yours.
This is so important, especially for people like me, who are always hearing the radio station that plays “but you’re 26 and you are ~*~gifted~*~ and you can write, WHERE IS YOUR NOVEL” on constant loop.
It’s so important because I see younger people who can write going “oh yes, I can write, therefore I will be an English major, and write my book and live on that yes?? then I don’t have to do other jobs yes??” and you’re like “oh, no, honey, at least try to add another string to your bow, please believe that it will not happen quite like that”
It’s so important not to be overly impressed by Walden because Thoreau’s mother continued to cook him food and wash his laundry while he was doing his self-sufficient wilderness-experiment “sit in a cabin and write” thing.
It’s so important because when you’re impressed by Lord of the Rings, remember that Tolkien had servants, a wife, university scouts and various underlings to do his admin, cook his meals, chase after him, and generally set up his life so that the only thing he had to do was wander around being vague and clever. In fact, the man could barely stand to show up at his own day job.
It’s important when you look at published fiction to remember that it is a non-random sample, and that it’s usually produced by the leisure class, so that most of what you study and consume is essentially wolves in captivity – not wolves in the wild – and does not reflect the experiences of all wolves.
Yep. I tried for 8 years to write while also supporting myself as a teacher, and it was possible but really hard. It was basically write instead of having a social life, and even that was squeezing it in around marking essays, cooking, cleaning etc. Now my partner supports me, and I have the time to actually get *good*. I had my first play produced this year because of an opportunity I wouldn’t even have had time to apply for if it hadn’t been for being ‘sponsored’ by him. I still earn a laughable fraction of a liveable wage, by the way, and I can keep at it because he pays the rent. It really is incredible how much better you get if you actually have time to practice.
humanities academia is exactly like this too. people with connections and wealth will claim they “worked hard” and… sure. but that’s not why they have a tenure track job while people who’ve worked equally as hard or harder are adjuncting. but many folks call people who are making themselves sick with work “lazy” as a way to explain why they’re not moving ahead, because they don’t want to discuss class privilege
Exactly what we were just discussing @erikaswyler! Anyone working in the arts needs the support of either family or a partner. It is virtually impossible otherwise. Not when you are starting out. It does not pay for itself.
Blacks in Science makes me soooooooool happy. ❤ ❤ ❤ A lot of the work I’m interested in (genetic engineering and protein sysnthesis using Arabidopsis thaliana) stems from his foundation.
My mom’s partner just got run off the road on the highway by a truck that hit him and sped off. He ended up 25 feet into the drain. He’s ok and the car is not badly damaged but poor thing he’s really shaken up. He’s a very safe driver and never been in an accident before. I feel so awful for him. But I’m glad to know he’s safe. Those fucking road hogs…
Raw gemstone rings… After a day at the bench. #goldfilled #rawgemstones #ruby #citrine #apatite #iolite #garnet #stackingrings #handmade #artisanjewelry #excisethestateofmyhands #beenalongday
In the new Netflix series Master of None, comic Aziz Ansari plays an Indian-American actor in New York who’s having a hard time finding good roles. It’s a story that Ansari and other actors are familiar with.
“As an actor there [are] frustrations when you don’t create your own content,” Ansari tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I feel like if I didn’t do this show, the kind of stuff I would’ve been offered, if it wasn’t just ethnic stuff, it would’ve been just versions of things I’ve done in the past … where I would just come into a room and yell things that sounded vaguely like ‘treat yo self.’ ”
Ansari is known for his stand-up as well as for his roles in the film Funny People and on the TV series Parks and Recreation (from which the tagline “treat yo self” came). He describes Master of None, which he co-created and co-writes with Alan Yang, as a show that has a nuanced approach to ethnicity and race.
Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang spoke to Fresh Air about their new series, which will be released on Netflix tomorrow.
It can go all the way down to the county level, which is kinda crazy.
31,493 people have my surname.
And I will fight them all*
so im not at all surprised that Yi is the 118th most common last name and there are more than 4 million people that share it…. tbh its really nice and i feel very connected right now
Only 1,245 have my surname. That’s still a lot more than I thought there would be…
My full name (Douglas is my mom’s surname btw) essentially means Swarthy man in the Mire, which is something I’m sure my parents didn’t intend.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ has earned the ‘Best of the Best’ award, topping a list of the last decade’s winners of the Baileys Women’s Fiction Prize
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was officially sworn in on November 4th, 2015, gives a very simple answer as to why he decided to have 15 men and 15 women on his cabinet.
Stopped by @no_more_fashion_victims today. Love how they styled my layered tassel necklace with this crisp white shirt by @meilinginc So chic! Now available on their website.
This evening I need to generate the payroll report for the preschool co-op teachers. My laptop is out of batteries and I can’t find the power cable. If I don’t do it, the teachers don’t get paid. This is not helpful!
Ugh. Took ages. Found it finally. Did the payroll and now have a netflix date with miss fisher… Aaahhhhhhhhh
I just made myself a gigantic bowl of ramen noodles for lunch because some days you have to say to hell with sodium.
We were watching a documentary in Spanish last night (Cartel Land, watch it, fantastic) and so of course every time I had to say something to Chris it came out in Spanish first and then English. He cracks up every single time and I don’t understand why it’s so funny to him. He says because it’s always unexpected (seriously though every time?). I guess it’s because he’s not bilingual. Anyone who speaks more than one language would understand. It’s hard hear one language you speak and respond in another. Your brain just switches over. It’s totally naturally. Not… funny…
I finished the work on my to-do list surprisingly early today. I’m going to edit pictures and maybe work on a custom order later but my plan is to take it easy today. I’m not quite feeling myself for some reason.
One of my favourite qualities about myself is my absolute confidence that I can do anything I put my mind to. It doesn’t mean I don’t feel afraid, but I push through it. My world has been made so much larger and richer because of this.
I am going to cook my husband a huge dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn tonight. He has been going through a really rough time lately with work and he is just about ready to quit, and just in general he’s been under a lot of stress. So I’m gonna make him some comfort food and stuff his face until he passes out because he hasn’t been sleeping well either.
Menos mal is a phrase is Spanish that means “luckily” or “thankfully”, as in menos mal que no tengo trabajo mañana, or “luckily I don’t have work tomorrow”. The words themselves literally mean “less bad” and I always found that interesting. Maybe that’s what luck is? Less bad…
One of my friends from high school just commented on a picture of a gemstone I put up with the exclamation “uff” and I immediately laughed. Is that even translatable? You see a hot guy walking by you go uff. You see a pair of gorgeous shoes in the store window your exclain uff. You take a bite of the most decadent chocolate cake you say uff que rico! I use it all the time but how do you say that in English?
I have this beautiful nugget of raw amethyst. Would make an amazing statement ring. Or a focal pendant. Putting it away until I decide what to do with it. Someday. #rawgemstones #amethyst
Setting some raw gemstones tonight. Citrine in the ring. Blue and green apatite and tourmaline in the background. #jewelry #gemstones #rawgemstones #ring
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Just listed: Shimmery three-toned hammered earrings in yellow gold, rose gold and silver. Festive and fabulous, they go with everything! Don’t forget to put yourself on your Christmas list! #artisanjewelry #handmade #sundarajewelry #earrings #hammered #gold #silver #rosegold
– Late-night bread baking because we were watching tv and someone mentioned a grilled cheese sandwich and we were both like Mmm but we didn’t have any so I’m making baking some. Be ready in 35 minutes come on over.
– I didn’t realize so many of my posts were about food until I started getting feedback. What can I say. My personal life is smooth, I work for myself so I can’t bitch about the boss, the only other thing really happening in my life is food.
– I’ve been using Deriva for a week now (the medication I was prescribed to treat what is apparently mild acne) and I’ve experienced initial dryness, redness and peeling but my GOD after only one week my skin looks better than it has looked in years. It is absolutely glowing. I look… pretty great. I can’t wait to see how it looks a few months down the line which is when they say you really start to see the effects.
– I’m watching Locked Up Abroad. I realised back in high school that I was really attracted to survival stories, specifically people who had endured imprisonment, starvation and torture. I think I’m just fascinated to see how people deal with these situations. I hope. I hope I’m not some sort of sicko.
– On one episode of Locked Up Abroad this group got kidnapped and the husband went into a fugue state. His wife was left to deal with the ensuing horror on her own. After they escaped she left him. She couldn’t be with someone who couldn’t be depended to protect her when things went bad.
– I read an amazing book called Dolgun about an American who was imprisoned and tortured for years during Stalin-era Russia. He was kept in solitary confinement for years and captured a fly and tied a thread to it to keep it as a pet. In the winter he would spill his water on the floor and let it freeze and skate back and forth in his cell for exercise. After he was released he saw himself in the mirror for the first time in years and didn’t recognize his own face. He’s spent so many years freezing his expression into an unreadable mask that he stayed that way.
– One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich was a fictional account of a day in a gulag Siberian prison by someone who had lived through it, author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I have never read anything that made me feel so cold, hungry, hopeless, and alone in my life. And cold. So very cold. It was a fantastic read though.
First time wearing these. Love the pop of the bright blue crystal. Will list these on my site they’re lovely. #earrings #jewelry #artisanjewelry #sundarajewelry #handmade #crystals #brass #stamped
I’m getting sleepy. Chris should be home in San hour or so. I missed him tonight. The bed feels empty without him in it. Party for one turned out to be overrated.
TO EVERYONE WHO THINKS WE ARE LIVING IN A POSTRACIAL WORLD. FUCKING READ THIS. CITED FROM REAL PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
To everyone who says they “don’t see color.” Open your fucking eyes and READ.
MICROINVALIDATION:
Microinvalidations are characterized by communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color. When Asian Americans (born and raised in the United States) are complimented for speaking good English or are repeatedly asked where they were born, the effect is to negate their U.S. American heritage and to convey that they are perpetual foreigners. When Blacks are told that “I don’t see color” or “We are all human beings,” the effect is to negate their experiences as racial/cultural beings (Helms, 1992).
(italics added)
important
That “I don’t see color” bullshit is the most annoying line spewed from racists.
Chris is out for the night on a boys’ lime. It’s not often that we socialize apart. Not because we’re one of those stuck at the hip couples, but because we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. But it’s also nice having the house to myself. I just had some soup and I’m about to have a slice of cake and I’m about to watch something on Netflix that he has no interest in and I’m gonna have a party for one here all by myself.
Me: I’m gonna put some chicken to defrost.
Me: (to Chris) You feel like having chicken?
Chris: Sure
Me: Fried chicken?
Chris: Anytime
Chris: With watermelon
My cleaning lady never showed up and the electrician turned out of be one of Chris’s friends who I like a lot so it was an entertaining time. I really should try to not view changes in schedule as negative setbacks because they actually always end up working out in the end. Like yesterday. My meeting didn’t take place at the scheduled time and place but we ended up going elsewhere and having a great time. There’s a lesson in there. I really like plans and sticking to schedules but I need to learn how to go with the flow a little more when things go off course. Because they always do.
Chris was gonna take me to brunch today. But then the electrician, who was supposed to show up on Thursday, called and said that he was coming. And then the cleaning lady’s mother called and said that she was on her way (we did not ask her to come today). So we’re stuck at home with people in our damn house instead of enjoying yummy food. Steups.
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Last night was the second time I had an extremely vivid dream of being in Seattle. A bridge featured heavily in both dreams and all the architectural elements were super sized. The first time I was with Chris, this time I was alone. The energy of the city both times had a very unique signature. It felt very alive and I felt very much at home and excited to be there.
Except I’ve never been to Seattle. No where close. I don’t know if anything I’m seeing even looks remotely like Seattle. I highly doubt it. But I’ve dreamt this twice. I wonder if I’m going there? This kind of dream often comes years before a trip. I’ve had many of them. I always somehow end up seeing everything in the dream. Even things that feel insignificant take on a lot of meaning when you literally find your dreams coming through.
I could go for a trip toSeattle. Why not? Travel is travel.
soulsistrin 