Microfilm Monday

Cutie-pie Stella. Source

Consumerism:
♦"Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed" (Wow, hadn't considered this.)

Disabilities/Illness:
♦Spoon Theory: explaining Lupus and its effects on daily life (This is a fantastic explanation for dealing with many disabilities/health issues; chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, cancer, clinical depression... the list goes on)

DIY:
♦Make a pinhole camera
♦Poster Wall Art (Very cool idea)
♦Home-made lotion bars

Feminism:
♦Advice on dealing with "Creepy Dudes" (It is a long read, but very worthwhile.)
♦ Lingerie Football League (How is wearing bikinis safe for tackling on AstroTurf?)
♦The other end of the spectrum: Prom-Dress Rugby (This looks awesome!)
♦Why is a woman having a positive body image and self love considered vain, or prideful?
♦"Skin Tone Tights" one color doesn't fit all.
♦Eye opener: Please stop calling illness a battle. (This post is about eating disorders, but the idea would also apply to cancer and other illnesses.)
Amazing excerpt:

"Women are pretty much expected to have pathological relationships with their bodies -- hence the usual bonding over self-loathing..."

Lol:
♦ Bargain Bin Blasphemy: Old LP's remade into Black-metal art
♦ Shakespearean Insults (Thou art a frothy, milk-livered maggot-pie!)

Mental Health/Self Care:
♦7 Ideas for being kinder to yourself

Modesty:
♦One Jewish woman's struggle with hair coverings (She decided not to.)
♦Another woman's journey toward head coverings
♦A very thorough post on finding flattering hats.

Noms:
♦Breakfast quiche
♦Cranberry Wild rice soup (Veg. but not vegan has half n half.)
♦Scottish Toffee

WTF:
♦Food fraud is common?!
♦Super creepy tableware (Stuff of nightmares)
♦My first meme coloring book
♦The Spider Who Couldn't Hide

Messy Monday

Aww! Pouting kitty is cute! Source

Kitty cuddle pile!

Advocacy:
♦The truth about sweatshop products. (Long, but very informative post.)

Awesome:
♦Margaret Hamilton was a seriously underrated actress. She was awesome! She was a kindergarten teacher before acting, and was a huge animal rights supporter. Her Wiki and IMDB.
♦She did it: "I Paid Off $12,000 Of Debt In 14 Months." Hang in there, it is possible.
♦"Slice" of tea. (Weird, or cool...?)
♦10 fruits to try before you die.

DIY:
♦Repair your rain boots. (The secret is: duct tape)
♦Give tacky things a new life...with a faux pewter finish.
♦Make a Masquerade mask. (So beautiful!)
♦Chandelier pendant necklace (I may have shared this one before.)
♦Fabric luggage tags.
♦Recycled lid magnets

Self-care/Health:
♦How to make waking up suck less

Noms:
♦Chocolate Swirl Buns
♦Whoa! Double Stuffed Brownies
♦Recipe bonanza....frostings, fillings, and fun!
♦Vanilla Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes
♦Vanilla-Almond Iced Coffee **
♦A mug cake that actually tastes good.
♦OMG! Raspberry Cheesecake Popsicles!

WTF:
♦"Slave shackle" shoes
♦Camo-toilet paper cover. Creepy and weird!
♦Two writers takes on 50 Shades Of Grey. "Bad writing, plot holes," "Prince Charming is kinda a jerk" *Warning: may contain adult content, or coarse language.*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**On a personal note: I have been having stomach issues. Coffee seems to be too hard on my stomach. I have pain, and nausea after having my morning coffee. *Sigh*

I quit drinking my cup of Joe, and I feel much better. I switched to decaffeinated chai tea. Yum!This may be a temporary issue, I hope! I love coffee and will miss it.

Apparently I am not the only one! If you have the same problem there is more info here.

MOONday

Hey, thats how my hair looks in the morning too! Source

I had never heard of porcupines with prehensile tails. Cool!

Art:

♦Incredible tattoos!

♦Amazing spring cakes.
♦Floral scultptures.
♦Money...warnings.
♦Not your childhood sand art!

DIY:

♦Fun poster art.

♦Poppy cookies +18 other flowers!

♦Make a cool bracelet.

♦OMG! Its giant versions of my favorite flower!!!!!

Fashion:

♦Fun with scarves.

♦Glitter shoes...but could just leave it as satin bands.

♦Decorate your shoes.

Feminism:
♦It about stinking time! Some dating websites have to cross check applications with sex offenders. (If only they were all required to do so!)
♦Geek girl for the win! A woman was fed up with a program written into her company’s chat channel. When ever something remotely provocative was typed it would reply “That’s what she said!” She wrote her own program that would reply with quotes from notable women! How cool is that!

Fun:

♦Terrible sheep cake....

♦Easter in Sweden...(Feather trees, and The Easter Witch...?)

♦ A huge collection of fairy tales has been discovered.

♦More book news: A huge collection of banned books discovered.

♦Its Pan Wow!

Noms:

♦Ice cream cone cannoli. Fantstic!

♦Oreo cheesecake frosting filled cookie sandwiches.

♦Classic appetizer. (Hint: bacon!)

Mental Health/Self-care:

♦Advice for teens (works for anyone.)

♦Would you give up TV for a month?(If you said yes, join Gala!)

♦"Don't tell me to get over it!" (I don't like it when people say this either!)

♦Stop apologizing! (Gala again.)

♦Ragen Chastain talks about weight bullying.

♦Make yourself a priority!

WTF:

♦Accidental zombie nails. (This is probably what would happen to me.)
♦Crazy shoe...art?

Colors:
16 ~ Silver
17~ Red
18 ~ Yellow
19 ~ Green
20 ~ Pink
21 ~ Gray
22 ~ Orange

Marzipan Monday

 Corgi says: "Whaaat?"

Cute pom + snow = high energy fun!

Its starts slow, but be patient it gets super cute!

DIY/Crafts:
♦How to create a photobooth.
♦For all of the retro lovers: How to make a sweater clip.
♦Tips for sewing leather.

Fashion/ Pop Culture:
♦What do you think about kids wearing pajamas to school? Or adults wearing them in public for that matter!

Mental Health/Self-Care:
♦Medicinal Marzipan talks about grieving the loss of your body fantasy.
♦Once again Ragen fights for body acceptance! (I LOVE Dances With Fat!!!!) This post is great too!

“This isn’t the Oppression Olympics – it’s not about who gets oppressed worse, it’s about nobody getting oppressed at all."

♦Problematic relationships? How to "fire" a bad friend. This could also work for toxic family members as well. (Don’t worry my friends! I am not speaking about any of you!)
♦Have you ever heard of Compulsive Skin Picking? A good friend of mine has this condition, and it drives her crazy. Here is an interview with a woman with the condition.

Health:
♦If you are like me and suffer from insomnia, Rookie offers some great tips for better sleep. (They are at the bottom)

I have a dental appointment (EEEk!) today, so wish me luck! 

Have a great week, and don't slip on the ice!!!

Color of the day:
6th   ~ Ivory
7th   ~ Maroon
8th   ~ Brown
9th   ~ Purple
10th ~ Rose
11th ~ Blue
12th ~ Gold

New Years resolutions...

I think that “resolutions” are over rated, and doomed to fail. I prefer to challenge myself instead. This year I had made a few challenges: lessen my trash output, and start a garden.

How exactly do you lesson trash out put…?

Here are some how-to's:

Reduce House Hold Waste      

Reducing Your Garbage



Here are a few ideas I gave a try:


1. Water bottle

I bought a Nalgene bottle to carry beverages. I chose a wide mouth one to accommodate ice cubes, or lemon wedges. 

Photo Source

  Except in purple…my favorite color.

2. No disposable plates or cutlery.


At work most people use a new paper plate and plastic cutlery for every break. I decided to bring my own silverware, and eat from reusable containers.

3. Compost!

I keep a small ice-cream pail in my kitchen. All food scraps go in the bucket till I dump them in the bin outside.*

Bonus… I will have fertilzer for the garden. Yay!

As for the garden…we all know how that turned out…

: )

As for next year’s challenges;

1. Garden re-do.

I want to draw up plans for my garden next year. I want to make better use of the space. (Be more efficient.) Maybe even start a garden journal to keep my planting and harvesting notes in.

2. End the battle with the clutter

Reorganize my “closet“. *Sigh* I have been battling my dressing room for years. I need to make it more efficient!

3. End house-wide clutter epidemic:

Rearranging the furniture in the house. I know that this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to me it is. I have to move rugs, cabinets, couches, and all of the art on the walls. Huge-huge mess during the process!



*A huge thank you goes to Spaceman Steve's family for giving me the idea. : )

Monday of the Turkeys

Not Thanksgiving related at all, but I really like this song.

All The Same To Me, by Anya Marina:

♦For your enjoyment, a really interesting article about the history of mincemeat pie.

♦A really neat idea for making mini pumpkin pies. (Use mini-muffin pans.)

♦The "Perfect Sugar Cookie recipe" from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle.

♦Now presenting the infamously bad Kwanza cake from Sandra Lee!

Some Thanksgiving Trivia from National Geographic:

     ♦The largest pumpkin pie ever made weighed 2,020 pounds (916.25 kilograms).

     ♦A ripe cranberry will bounce.

     ♦All turkeys and chickens have wishbones.

     ♦Canadians celebrate their own Thanksgiving every October.

     ♦Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863.

     ♦The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in 1924


If you want more tivia, quiz yourself here.

Source

　
♦For my sentimental friends, Seven authors talk about their family traditions. One of them is by Garrison Keillor. (I love the Mr. Turkey one.)

♦To honor my vegetarian friends. Here is a vegetarian’s take on Thanksgiving.

　
♦Here is a HUGE LIST of vegetarian dishes that would be awesome for Turkey Day.

♦Thanksgiving Cake Wrecks.

♦There is a great movement to combat consumerism. The idea behind Buy Nothing Day is to boycott the madness of Black Friday. Doing so sends a message to retailers that we as consumers won’t fall for their madness.
     *Wiki Page
     *Adbusters

Have  great Thanksgiving! (Go easy on your poor stomachs!)

Colors: 28th Lavender
29th Black
30th White
Dec 1st Purple
2nd White
3rd Gray
4th Amber

Magnificent Monday

How can you resist a face like this?! OCD Obsessive Corgi Disorder Blog

After hearing this song I have it stuck in my head.

It took me forever to figure out who it was by.

(I don't keep up with popular music.)

♦Dita Von Teese's advice rule breakers. Very good advice!

♦Swiss Miss's advice for ignoring haters. More cool advice.

♦Continuing with advice...10 Rules for Brilliant Women.

♦A very interesting article about consumerist feminism:

"I’ve always been fascinated and infuriated by the way that one is obliged, as a woman, to purchase the trappings of one’s own gender, and infuriated by the way the rules keep changing the deeper into the game you go. I’ve been getting into more and more professional situations where it is no longer okay to turn up with huge biker boots and a slash of clashing lipstick and expect to be taken seriously. As women, everything we wear is a statement, and we have no right to remain sartorially silent. We negotiate a field of signifiers every time we open our wardrobes, or, in my case, every time we rummage through the clothes-pile on the bedroom floor."

♦This piece on street fashion cracked me up!

"Where do people buy these absurd, absurd clothes? I know that a lot of it is more like moving art installations than actual clothes, but you take a picture of a chick wearing a floor-length ball gown made entirely out of Nerds Ropes and you don’t offer any explanation — like, sure, we’re all just supposed to nod along with great dignity and appreciation for art as we ignore the fact that she’s walking around an actual city in modern civilization wearing a bra shaped like a dolphin. Right, okay."

♦Delicious pumpkin cinnamon pancakes. Yummy! Check out the recipe.

♦Speaking of absurdity:

Source

♦Worried about the zombie apocalypse? Here are some ideas:

Armor, The Zombie Survival Guide, Zombie Survival Wiki, Zombie survival supplies.

My favorite product is the Zombie bait station. Ha ha ha!

I am adding a new feature!

I have an almanac that lists the color of the day. It is determined by astrological data…I don‘t follow horoscopes too closely but, I do use it to try to add some color to my wardrobe. (I try to wear the color of the day. ) A few folks have expressed interest in the color of the day, so I thought I would share with all of you. Enjoy!
Colors for the week:
21st Ivory
22nd Gray
23rd Brown
24th White
25th Rose
26ht Gray
27th Orange