Nudity is Only Skin-Deep

Last fall, when I was looking for whatever work I could find, I found a position for a party facilitator. Essentially, the worker would be in charge of running clothing swap parties. I thought that sounded pretty spiffy. I like clothing swap parties. But then I was reading more about the job, and found something peculiar. No item of clothing was to be more than a year old.

I don't own much that's a year old or less. I do most of my clothing shopping at vintage, consignment, and thrift shops. I find the stuff is both more economical and more interesting than stuff bought at the local Reitman's or whatever. And so I lost interest in the clothing swap party job. I applied anyway, but never heard back. I can't help but doubt it was a real job, anyhow.

Right now, I'm wearing a pair of leggings that I bought within the last year. Everything else is either of unknown age (blouse and skirt from clothing swap parties, one party being over six years ago), or at least four years old. I'm sure I've had these socks over ten years, now. I don't think I look shabby.



Link time? Ok.

Fantasmagorie: I'm a movie star! I co-star in this concept art film created by WhiteFeather. Check it out!

How to Make Oatmeal . . . Wrong: McDonald's: "From a marketing perspective, they can do almost nothing wrong; from a nutritional perspective, they can do almost nothing right, as the oatmeal fiasco demonstrates."

Clothing Sewing Patterns: Free patterns, from the very simple, to a bizarre creation of Alexander McQueen. If I ever finish my current project, I might give McQueen's shirt a go.

Forward Into the Past: A day of history brought to life. I signed up for a bunch of workshops, including on tablet weaving and naalbinding. Yay!

"Zombie" Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi: Awesomely creepy fungus. Right out of B-movies.

Today has been a day of making. It started with making my room neat. I won't say that was a total triumph, but I certainly made a dent. I also started the process for traveling internationally by beginning to fill out the paperwork for a passport. Of course, I realized my birth certificate is AWOL, so I had to fill out paperwork to order in a new one. But the process is underway. I will travel. I really want to. I've never been to Europe. Yet.

I made myself a member of CADA today, which means I can now get reimbursed for a lot of my dance training. This will make it much easier for me to continue to progress as a dancer. It also gets me accident insurance, which could be handy in case I break myself in half doing splits or something.

And then I slaved over a sonnet for a few hours. I've decided to work in the Shakespearean form (rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG), and that was a struggle and a half. My brain rebelled the whole time, squealing DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT DO NOT WANT the whole time, but damn it, who's in control? My brain or me? I say me. And so I got the first stanza finished, and am on my way with the second. So there, brain. Suck on it.

I finally relented and gave my brain a break by knitting another cowl scarf, this time out of wool/rayon and mohair/polyamide (whatever that is). It's very silky and soft, and not nearly as froufrou girly-girl as I thought it might be, despite its purple/pink combination.



And then it was time to challenge myself again, this time with naalbinding. This is my very first attempt:



It's a bit wonky, but it seems to look right. Not knowing anyone who actually practices this ancient art, I can't exactly ask for advice. But the incomprehensible (to me) Nordic woman in the tutorial video seems to be making something that looks like this. So I think I'm on the right track. My next couple of attempts were worse, so I think that's my brain saying "Enough!" for now. Ok. I'll give it a break. Poor brain. I asked so much of it today. What it doesn't realize is how I'm going to make it do my bidding again tomorrow. Shhh.....