ticker tape parade no. 13

Interrobangs Anonymous via Academichic

I love having the internet back. Lately I've just been admiringly perusing because I can. It's funny that while I didn't have an internet connection I didn't care too much about going on but once I had it back I just want to overdose on internet. Surprisingly this post is pretty light considering I haven't done a ticker tape parade in a couple weeks. I tried to focus on more recent things.

I loved this post by E. on Academichic where she dressed like the cover of the book she was reading. So you can only imagine how my little heart skipped a beat when I saw another post dedicated to other bloggers doing the same thing!

The next 30 for 30 challenge on Kendi Everyday starts on my birthday! I'm trying to put a list together and take part in it this time around.

A lot of the time I feel uncomfortable talking about queer things here, which is weird because "queer" is a huge part of how I identify. Maybe linking to someone else's list of queer terms (from subversive lesbian anarchic femme) will help lighten my odd discomfort.

Then on a sewing related note, Tasia from Sewaholic posted a slip sewing how to and some slip tips, which is great because I need a short slip to go under a skirt I just finished sewing!

House of Humble and Kyla Roma have been added to my blog reader, both a couple weeks ago. I guess with the lack of internet connection also came a slowing down of my voracious blog consumption habits.

ticker tape parade no. 12

I finally finished reading Moby Dick! And man, was that an insane ending. Not unexpected, but still insane. Don recently got this shirt (made by Out of Print Clothing) from a bookstore that just started carrying them. I've liked this company for a really long time and want to get Don this Master and Margarita shirt, since I meant to get it for his birthday last year. (Also I finished reading Moby Dick first!)

On the topic of books, on Facebook a friend posted this review of Stuck Rubber Baby, a graphic novel by Howard Cruse, and I'd really like to read it.

There was a fantastic post on the blog fatty unbound about being comfortable in and claiming your own skin.

Related is a post by Already Pretty on self care. It's a quick little cheat sheet but it's nice.

Three wardrobe related posts:

• "What I Wear Everyday,"a post which shows off how Dana of MADE gets dressed everyday.
• "Wardrobe Strategy,"on Casey's Elegant Musings is a mini remix of one dress.
• "Building a Wardrobe and Demystifying Those Fashionable Girls" by Kyla Roma. I really want to try this exercise: collecting images that make me say "I would wear that!" Then figuring out my style from the collection. I have a lot of clothes and a very large "nothing to wear" problem.
  

I also started following the citybirds nest.

P.S. Anyone get Raptured yet? No?

ticker tape parade no. 11

from Vixen Vintage

What a weird past few days these have been. Along with Blogger being on the fritz I was convinced all of Friday (the day that I've been doing the ticker tape parade posts) that it was Saturday and that I'd missed doing the post and thinking I might wait until next week. Then all of Saturday I was convinced that it was Friday and that I'd do it later. Really, I don't know how or why.

Most of what I've been entranced by on the internet this week is pretty clothes, I'm not going to lie. And not even really sewing related, just clothes. This is probably because I've been sewing more lately (I finally got my desk set up even though we're moving at the end of the month). So I'll start out with this gorgeous outfit from Vixen Vintage. I love how all the colors match. Those socks, that sweater, that skirt? I melted when I saw this. I wish I was exaggerating.

I also loved Gertie's instant gratification eyelet dress. To the point where I might want to try one for myself this summer.

Now on to the more sewing related eye candy: part two of the 30's style collar pattern drafting tutorial is up on Casey's Elegant Musings. (Want part one?)

I've been working on an elastic waist band skirt sewing project with a friend of mine lately and now I'm hooked. I've also been lamenting not having a jeans equivalent skirt. Enter this chambray shirt to skirt tutorial via Grossgrain.

I also started following Elise Blaha::enJOY it and Dixie DIY.

ticker tape parade no. 10

I LOVE True Blood. Last summer the new season premiered on my birthday (June 13, if you didn't have it memorized when the last season premiered/wanted to know when I get older) so I kept calling it HBO's special birthday present for me. So I was really excited to learn through Q's Daydream that Anna Paquin did a spread in Self Magazine July 2oo9.

Let me preface this by saying I have an awful sense of humor, and if you don't like graphic images you don't want to follow this link. It's definitely not safe for work. Ok! Probably my favorite thing on the internet this week was a post on Regretsy about some fantastic royal wedding memorabilia. I wish I had endless amounts of money to waste on things like this. It would probably go in the bathroom or something ridiculous like that. I think I'm one of the few people who didn't watch or pay very much attention at all to the wedding. Oops.

Elycia of Love, Elycia is doing a series called "28 Things," 28 things about herself leading up to her birthday, and I love this Ahnold Schwarzenegger video that she put together.

A Fashionable Stitch is doing a sew-a-long with one of the new patterns from Colette Patterns!

I've been listening to Pomplamoose pretty much non-stop for the past couple days.

I've been looking for nice ways to keep my indoor herb garden and I've decided on these tin cans and mason jar terrariums!

Started following Vintage Seen, Skunkboy Creatures, fuck yeah haikus, All the Fuss, Made by Rae, A Fashionable Stitch (the new home of The Cupcake Goddess), knitxcore,

I also realized I could follow web comics on Google Reader! My life is now complete! Ok, now you know a bit more about how much of a nerd I am.

ticker tape parade no. 9

Photos from The Snug Bug

As someone who also uses a little point-and-shoot camera, I really appreciated the photo tutorial on Snug Bug. Though maybe someday I too will own a fancy DSLR! (Also I think Patty is adorable so I couldn't resist the chance to look at copious amounts of pictures of her!)

I've been thinking recently on the difference between pushing myself to try new things clothing-wise (and show them off on this here blog) and wearing something because I think blog-land would approve. Shey at Modesty is Pretty wrote a post on almost exactly this recently!

Gertie wrote a post about how plus sized women's bodies are hidden in the media. She makes the point that if when women are shown bodies that look like their own but are covered up and minimized so that less attention is paid to them how are they supposed to feel proud of their own bodies? There are so many places this conversation could go, but I'm pretty disappointed by many of them commenters bringing more fat shaming to the space.

For something a bit more light-hearted, this video of a fellow filming a makeup tutorial on his partner is so cute!

I really love the blog Already Pretty. So I was really excited to see that right after there was a post on Already Pretty about breaking color pairing taboos, E. at academichic wore red and pink together! Take that Valentines day!

Finally, I started following Chaos Words (this is a friend's tumblr, it's mostly poetry and pictures), Grosgrain, MADE, and Yonder.

ticker tape parade no. 8

First of all, the video above. I LOVE the sound that little penguin makes. I want to tickle it all day and be best friends. I first saw this video on Tea & Chickadees and oh boy did it make me happy.

I finally learned a little bit about Google Friend Connect and started following some blogs through it, but I still don't quite understand what it is. Or what the difference is between following something on Blogger and following something through Google Friend Connect. On the same note I also started using Google reader. I didn't even try to go as far as Bloglovin. (Please don't make fun of my lack of blogosphere savvy! Or if you do, could you also explain it to me?)

There has been a lot of talk around the internet about the pink nail polish J.Crew ad. As far as responses to the trans-bashing that has been going on around the ad I really like this post on Academichic.

"Retro high-waisted panties" love at Gertie's New Blog. I'll readily admit that I love big comfy undergarments.

It's been a quiet week here (read internet light) because I'm still getting used to the new job tapping the old cha-ching.

ticker tape parade no. 7

Image from the silk shirt alteration tutorial at One Pearl Button

There's a really fantastic tutorial on how to alter a silk button down shirt (or any button down shirt, but silk is such a nice fabric) over at One Pearl Button. This girl has so many sweet tutorials! She's also hosting a four year blogging anniversary giveaway. You should really check her out!

I think next week I'm going to participate in the Inspiration Monday project on the Two Birds blog. I want to connect with more bloggers, and this seems like a good place to start. Especially because I thrifted a really nice plaid flannel this week and this is the inspiration picture!

I also started following Love Elycia and Q's Daydream this week. Both are completely adorable.

And then I wanted to leave this bit-of-a-rant for last:

A blog that I've been following for years posted this article, Why You're Not Married, by Tracy McMillan, calling it an "an honest and in your face assessment of how single women manage to stay single." This made me so mad when I first read it. I pulled up the two articles that I knew of that break down why this article is so harmful to women, one by Feministing and one by Jezebel (though the Jezebel post doesn't so much break it down as satirically point out how it's harmful), and wanted to post a comment - which I've never done on this blog - with links to Feministing and Jezebel. Then I stepped back. How would you react if someone you had never had any contact with left a comment about how wrong something you thought was - something that's been shoved down your throat your entire life - like sexist ideas about women? My comment wouldn't do anything to change how this person thinks about marriage and why they're not married, and would probably just solidify how crazy those feminists are. This post makes me want to stop reading this blog, even though I don't read it for it's feminist politics but because I like how the person dresses. How do I reconcile my politics with really prevalent women bashing in the fashion world, by women themselves? I don't know.

ticker tape parade no. 6

30th Anniversary Reproductive Justice Conference is this weekend! Actually it starts this afternoon! I wish my life were as interesting as it's seemed the past few weeks, I usually don't go to this many conferences, it's just that time of year.

How brave! Casey of Elegant Musings is doing a 30x30 challenge right now by herself! I think I could do a 30x30 challenge with the one million other bloggers that do the challenge when Kendi puts one out there, but I don't know if I'd do it by myself.

A post on Little Girl Big Closet about what Tara's blog means to her and what she wants out of it kind of hit home. The past six weeks (these Friday favorites are a great way to keep track of how long I've been writing this blog) I've been trying to figure out what this blog is. It's not completely a style blog, not completely a crafting blog, not completely a thrifting blog. What it is is a little piece of my world put out there for someone else to find, hopefully like what they see and want to share too. Now I need to quit being sentimental about my little fledgling blog. We really should be friends though.

Along the line of blog-things, I've been working on a "worthwhile reads" page. I used to have them in a long list down the side bar, but it really bothered me that the side bar was longer than my posts (neurotic? Very possibly). I'm not affiliated with any of these blogs, and am still working on the courage to comment on many of them, but I really do think they're worthwhile reads!

So in that respect, I started following Cakies, Lemon and Raspberry, Flashlights and Arrows, and Two Birds this week.

ticker tape parade no. 5

This is not my Grammy. However, I think they would get along.

I wish it was an April Fool's joke, but me and the fellow (can we call him D. from now on? That makes things so much easier) have been laid up with The Cold From Hell for the past week, which is why it's been so quiet here. We're starting to feel better so hopefully things will be picking up again. You know what's also not a funny April Fool's Day joke? It snowed last night. Thankfully it's all melted again by now.

This post by Tania at What Would a Nerd Wear is, however, a very funny joke.

The videos in this post at My Girl Thursday I really, really like. Whenever I look at Advanced Style I wonder what my Grammy would thin. She loves style to the point where she can date old movies (and she watches a lot of them) to within a couple years just by the costuming. I love my Grammy so much.

Started following Tea and Chickadees, PuNk rAwK pUrL, Vixen Vintage, and Advanced Style. The last two are more blogs that I've been unofficially following for a while.

I also finished reading Kalpa Imperial by Ang&eacutelica Gorodischer. This was one of my Christmas presents from D., and it was definitely one of the best books I've read in awhile. Right now both D. and I are reading Moby Dick, though he's much farther along in it than I am.

ticker tape parade no. 4

Image from The Cupcake Goddess's Hand Worked Button Hole Tutorial

So I seam to only care about sewing related things on the internet this week, even though I've been knitting up a storm lately. (Ha ha, did you catch my bad joke? Seam? Sewing? Yeah, that's an awful pun.)

• Bound buttonholes by Tasia at Sewaholic! I'm terrified of even trying bound buttonholes (good thing I'm not sewing anything with them right now), but when the time comes hopefully this will help.
• Two sweet sewing tutorials from The Cupcake Godess! A nice way to finish a facing. In all my projects I've been trying to learn tricks to make them look as pretty on the inside as they do on the outside. Also hand worked button holes.
• Tilly and the Buttons made a guest post over at Casey's Elegant Musings on how to make a fabric covered necklace for spring. There have been so many "get ready for spring" posts lately but I can still see a pile of snow from where I'm sitting at my kitchen table.
  

However, I can start to dream about warmer weather. I really want a pair of nice sandals for this summer, and there are so many nice ones in this etsy shop, Anania's Sandals. These might be my favorites, and none of the sandals are too expensive. What are the labor laws like in Greece (where they're based)? This is something I'm going to have to look into before I feel alright getting anything from them.

Finally, I started following Molly-Made, Subversive Lesbian Anarchic Femme (I love this name!), Speak Quietly, Orchids in Buttonholes, One Pearl Button, Fatty Unbound, Wrinkled Dollar, Compiling My Closet, Little Girl Big Closet, and Little Boat this week.

ticker tape parade no. 3

There is a Bloggers Day of Silence tomorrow for Japan. I can't say that I believe an internet day of silence is the best way to help Japan, or even to raise awareness, but it doesn't hurt.

The ClothesEncounters YouTube channel is pretty neat. So much thrifting. So much cute. I love puns so I think their name is pretty neat by itself.

Some sewing geekery: there a tutorial on how to pivot a dart on Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing.

Started following Knitted Bliss, our.city.lights, The Quiet Life of Violet, Little Tree Vintage, and my girl thursday. I feel like I found a new corner of the internet this week, and I really like it.

Also I finished (re)reading Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction, by J.D. Salinger. Possibly a little cliched, but I think he's my favorite author. Hands down he's one of my favorites, at the very, very least. So my partner put it well when he called this a "comfort read" for me.

ticker tape parade no. 2

Pax East is this weekend! So nerdily excited!

Kendi's 30 for 30 winter challenge just came to an end. Hopefully next time around I'll be brave enough to join in!

Peter wrote a great post as part of his Guy Week about "men who dress like women." While he doesn't go into details like gender theory it's a fun post and an easy way to open up the topic to people who might not be familiar with different gender expressions.

I started following academichic, bearly on earth, the cupcake goddess, paper sparrow, gertie's new blog for better sewing (which I've been reading for quite a while, but just started "following"). There are so many sweet blogs out there, how does anyone keep up with them all?

ticker tape parade no. 1

This is this weekend! I'm so excited!!!

Having gone to a large university/still living in the same town as said large university, this analysis of "ladies drink for free nights," is funny and not funny at the same time.

There have been some sweet posts lately with thrifting tips. Thrifting is something near and dear to my heart. I love Casey's video intro to thrifting and Already Pretty's quick tips. I usually have to go section by section and stick to a list in large thrift stores when thrifting with friends, because most of my friends don't have the same patience with the thrifts that I do.

Gertie of the New Blog fame posted about how she does what she does. I'm not making a living off my two-post blog, but it's a good post and applicable to almost anything a person might want to accomplish.

I recently started following Patty the Snug Bug's blog, so cute! It was this post specifically that made me start crushing so hard!

I think a "Friday Favorites" type post will be a regular thing here.