Happy Holidays To One And All

This past year:

Wow, what can one say. 2012 had it ups and downs. Unfortunately, it is ending on some truly tragic negatives. Which I can only hope means that 2013 will be our salvation: that real change and responsibility will be put in place to benefit all and not just some. This sentiment amazingly, refers to so many things this year, not just the obvious. We are in this together; that's the only way we prosper, as a world, a country, and as individuals.

Hug your family and friends, let them know you love them, and look forward to a new shinier year.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!!

Mission: Accomplished!

While I've been away from the blog, I have tried numerous T-shirt muslins, contemplated making pants, been busy with two jobs, trying to build an actual social life, and oh, by the way, this happened...

B.A.- Art History 2012

Virginia Commonwealth University

Whew!

I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders but then the next day and then the next week happened. The combination of all that work, the anticipation, the fear of failure, and all the money spent is over in the time it takes you to walk across a stage in the Richmond Convention Center to receive a rolled-up sheet of blank paper.

Now, of course, I DO NOT regret the experience but I do regret the time and expense that went into this protracted 20+ year journey. If there is anything I can impart to college-age teenagers thinking about college is to finish it when you first get that chance. It only becomes harder to accomplish and more expensive to afford the longer you take. Take the opportunity before 1) you have to pay rent, 2) you parents are no longer willing to pay, and 3) you have to hold down a full-time job at the same time. Trust me.

I Am Honored...

to have received the coveted Liebster Blog Award from KC at The Sewcratic Method.

Thank you, KC!!!!
Since the creation of this award the available blogs with less than 200 followers are quickly disapearing as everyone immediately clicks over to check them out, so instead of searching for blogs that haven't received it yet, I am bestowing it on the most recent blogs that I have found.* The 5 blogs I chose to award are:

Girl meets wolf
Experiments and Accidents
Cloth Habit
The Muslinette
Sown Brooklyn

Congratulations everyone! Keep sewing and we will keep reading!



Before I even published this email about the Leibster, Diane of The Blue Gardenia gave me the Very Versatile Blogger award! Thank you so much!

My list of 15 bloggers again consists of recent discoveries:

Closet Case Files
Cloth Habit
Experiments and Accidents
Four Square Walls
Girl Meets Wolf
Lucky Lucille
Madalynne
Sewin' Steady
Sown Brooklyn
The Muslinette
DaughterFish
threadsquare
Toferet's Empty Bobbin
True Bias
Zilredloh


* When I discover a new blog, that means I also pretty much read all of their old posts too. So, yes, I've been very busy!

Getting It Done

Oh, by the way, I received a B and a C in my spring classes, Global Ethics/World Religions and Medieval Art and Architecture. Two down, only three more to go!

My next class, Architecture in Richmond starts next Tuesday and will be two nights a week for the next eight weeks. After that class is done in July, I should be able to see the light at the end of a very long twenty-year* tunnel. The weight is slowly lifting off my shoulders.


*My original graduation date if I had attended full time.

Beware, Politics

I normally don't talk about anything that could be considered controversial on my blog. I hope you don't mind.

For my Global Ethics and World Religions class I wrote my final paper on morality. We had to find a situation (abortion, child labor, privacy laws, etc.) and deem it either immoral or moral and then in the same paper debate it from the other side of the issue. I chose for my paper, Same-Sex Marriage is Moral. This is something very important for me, since I have known many long-term (I'm talking 15 years+) homosexual couples. Well, I finished the paper last week and got a 93 on it.

Then today I just saw this wedding story on the New York Times website of a male couple, together 25 years, who traveled around the country and held wedding ceremonies in all of the states that allow same-sex unions. Yes, all six* of them.

Oh, and perhaps to be cheeky, they staged a guerrilla wedding in California, a state that once did but now doesn't allow them.

Read the story here.

*Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, in case you wanted to know.

Who Is Tara Lynn?

Okay, okay, tell me if I'm wrong, but have any of you been seeing stories online about model Tara Lynn?

Because I haven't.

In the August issue of Glamour magazine, I was flipping the pages when my eyes were arrested by a gorgeous woman with fabulous hair and curves. Her name was Tara Lynn and her job title was listed as model. Well, then why haven't I seen her before? Like, a lot, and like, everywhere?

Well, I looked her up on the Internet and low and behold she is out there. I mean, French Elle just did a gorgeous 20-page(!) editorial spread in April with her modeling bathing suits, cocktail dresses, and jeans. I read a lot of blogs about fashion and clothes and surprisingly while I have read about Crystal Renn almost everywhere, I have seen nothing about Tara Lynn? In fact, that Crystal Renn spread from V magazine's size issue that everyone was posting about? Tara Lynn was in that issue too but no one gave her a name.

I do like Crystal Renn, but she's the modeling industry's go-to "plus-size" model even though she's barely considered that according to the non-model U.S. female population. Now, Tara Lynn, while being just as gorgeous is more obviously fuller-figured. If they started using her more, they could shut a lot of these protests down and start to show that they actually believe women are beautiful in all sizes. I mean, this woman is stunning! See for yourself:

So, I'm throwing down the gauntlet...why don't we all try to find some plus-size models we admire and envy and get their names out there. Up first, Tara Lynn.

If we build it (hype) they (advertisers, editors) will come.

Right?

Images: Glamour (Aug 2010), photographer Leo Lam, French Elle, (April 2010)

Validation!

This made me cry and smile at the same time. Go out and make someone's day! We all need validation, right?

The Uniform Project Completed!

I believe a lot of you already knew about The Uniform Project. I think I may have even written about it once. But I kind of lost track and didn't even know that it had been completed.

Sheena Matheiken spent 365 days wearing one black dress* as a charity fundraiser for the Akanksha Foundation and all the donations went toward their School Project to fund uniforms and other educational expenses for children living in Indian slums. The project ended up raising $80,353 and paying for 220 kids to attend school who might not have attended without the help.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Here's the adorably cute video picture book of the entire project. I had a few problems, not with viewing it, but with hearing the theme music. It kept cutting in and out but then my computer is V. old.

Uniform Project Picture Book from The Uniform Project on Vimeo.

The song is "This is the Day" by Matt Johnson (a.k.a. The The) and it brings back wonderful memories from college. I used to drive myself crazy playing this song over and over! So, enjoy.

YES, they will be manufacturing and selling the LBD, designed by Eliza Starbuck. So, check their blog for more details as they come. However, I will be waiting for the pattern, as the dress being sold is way too short for me!

*Actually, seven identical ones, so one for each day of the week, ie. why it's called a uniform.

A New Header For The New Year

Happy New Year!

Yes, I was awake, watching "Away We Go", took a break at 11:59 to toast myself with sparkling grape juice and listen to "Being Alive" (remember?) to coax me into a new attitude for life in 2010.

Happy Holidays!

Sorry, I didn't post this message earlier but I was too busy having a great holiday to blog. YES, despite my melancholy this season and the like-minded posts I wrote about it, I had one of the best holidays I've had in awhile. I didn't even need to make a Bingo card* this year.

Excerpt from a November New York Times article on holidays and tension:

Betsy said her cousin also complained of holiday meal tension with her own family, so the two devised a strategy to help each other cope. Each made bingo cards, but instead of numbers, the squares were filled in with some of the negative phrases they expected to hear during the meal, like “That outfit is interesting” or “Your children won’t sit still.” As comments were made at the separate family celebrations, each woman would mark her card.

“Whoever fills up a bingo row first,” Betsy said, “sneaks off to call the other and say, ‘Bingo!’ ”

I not only met new cool people, got to talk to my great-aunt about sewing (she made my mother's wedding dress!), played with little kids, three dogs, and two cats, ate great food every three hours practically, but I also spent up to two hours with either a loving, purring kitty or a four-month old baby on my lap. Hoo-boy, this was a fun holiday! Hope yours was great too.

Here's to 2010 being even better!

*The Bingo cards are an excellent idea; wish I had them years ago! Thanks for letting me know about them, ATG!

Living Wild in RVA

I'm actually going out to see a band tonight. Yes, you heard right, on a Friday! I can't believe how long it's been since that has happened. I have never heard or seen the band before, but the description of their music sounds interesting. It will also be at a bar I've never been to before and I don't expect to know anyone there.

This is my current idea of high adventure; new people, new place, and new music. Yes!

About being psyched, I'm just tired of being blah and blasse about everything. I want to look at all things as opportunities for knowledge and enjoyment and really start to live in the moment. I realized I don't have to be living the most exciting life as long as I'm getting something worthwhile out of it (see here). So looking for the best time, all the time isn't the way I'm going to be happy, because what if it isn't the best time, then?

So reading a book in a new park, trying a new restaurant, talking to a stranger in line about her cool shoes can all be good things that might lead to even better things...or not. So yes, the idea of new people and just new things in general gets me excited. It may not sound like it's going to be my favorite music, but who knows? That's exactly how you do find new things to like.

More About MORE

Referring to the quote from yesterday:

"A Buddhist friend told me that if you're feeling stressed, get rid of the stuff you don't need and finish the things you've started."

Does anyone know the actual Buddhist saying (or passage) this is from? Thanks!

Update: Positive

Well, I had my belly dance class on Tuesday and I loved it! I was worried that I was really rusty since I hadn't used some of those muscles for five years. But no, I was keeping up with the other girls who had taken it last session. Two days later and I'm still not sore so my muscles must be pretty good. I had so much energy the next day. So yeah, this exercise thing is really going to help me out.

I finally finished my taxes and I will be getting back a check for more money than I make in a month! Of course, I don't make that much in a month, but still..."it's a good thing," as Martha would say. This will also help me out immensely.

I have many projects on my plate right now, so I'm doing a little bit each night:

• two stuffed animals for one newborn and one upcoming baby shower
• a musical keyboard cover for a friend in exchange for some computer help
• that Burdastyle Anda dress (just haven't had time to do anything past sewing up the side seams)
• make a sash for that gray skirt (though I did take out that 2nd row of elastic that was making me feel thick in the waist)
• other misc. mending jobs (hems, repair tears, replace buttons and other fasteners)

Let's just say, TGIF, TGIF!


Victoria Secret chandelier sandals I always associate with belly dancing. I so wish I had bought these years ago! (Now, I'd feel guilty having such an impractical pair of shoes.)

One day...

I want to:

• fall in love
• own a dog
• have a good reason to wear a ballgown
• visit Rochester, NY
• be my own boss
• own a little house
• grow my hair so I can make a bun or a top knot
• learn flamenco
• travel to London, Scotland, and Spain
• track down two old boyfriends (Facebook to the rescue!)
• attend a performance of Austin City Limits
• attend a show on Broadway, preferably Sondheim
• meet Amy Sedaris

• live happily ever after
  

Note: in no particular order

A new day has come (finally!)

I can now believe that some dreams do come true and that anything is possible!

Imagine that.

Shout out to Simplicity

I just went to check out who had new patterns (yes, I know I still haven't finished that easy skirt I was making! Patience, please!)

Well, I just want to give a shout out to the Simplicity pattern company for this:

Simplicity 2822

Simplicity 2822, a pattern for making storage accessories for wheelchairs and walkers. This is the first pattern I've seen of this kind and I'm sure it will be a welcome to many parents out there. So, good for you Simplicity!




Also seen, Simplicity 2806, for four different types of "green" tote bags and now that Jo-anns is selling organic fabric...

Patience is a power

Six months ago:

An excerpt from a never-posted entry entitled "I want a new life":

This one, well, I can't seem to get it to go anywhere. I moved here full of vim and vigor four years ago. Now, no vim, no vigor. I'm in debt, out of work, and because I can't pay for more classes, my school loans are now due.

Four years ago, I had everything going for me. I was eager and motivated. In February, I quit my soul-sucking job (my 3rd!) to attend school full-time and get a part-time job. I had enough money in loans to finish my degree, buy a laptop, and perhaps help out on paying for my graduation trip to Italy. That is, if I had gotten that part-time job. Well, I didn't and therefore went through the money much faster. Now I'm hoping that the last interview I went on worked.

Depressing, right?

Now:

• Thursday I finished my last class and last exam for the spring semester. School is officially out for summer! I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and even the load that was weighing on that weight was lifted. That one was full of guilt about not doing the other stuff I wanted to accomplish while working 40 hours, taking two classes, publishing my two blogs, and writing a column for another blog. You know, keeping in touch with your existing friends, making new friends, and perhaps having a date before 2010.
• I got on the scale Friday morning (and double-checked just now) somehow, since the last time I got on the scale, I have gained FIVE pounds! Woo hoo! This accomplishment means so much more than numbers. For the past year, I have been in survivor mode with no appetite, my clothes falling off me, and no energy because of anemia and insomnia. This weight gain means I am finally rallying from that depressive year of unemployment, 2007. Finally.
• I checked my account balance and there is cushion money in both checking and in savings thanks to my tax refunds! In addition, I finally made the goal of $100 through blog advertising revenue and will be receiving my first check before the end of the month! This doesn't mean I'm swimming in money just yet but I can now start saving for the fall semester without starving.

So what I'm trying to say...is prepare to start seeing dispatches from "the summer of Lisa" this next few months...I'm feeling energized!

Letter from New Orleans,

NOTE: This letter is from my friend Linda in New Orleans. I had asked her about her life post-Katrina. She and her husband, John, were temporarily relocated and lived in Houston before they could return to their home. These are her words.

New Orleans.

Two words that used to inspire smiles and shared memories from strangers. They had either had a great time in this town or planned to have one someday. Now say you're from NO and people look at you with pity and fear (you must be nuts if you live there.) Half the planet thinks that we're fine and apparently, the other half thinks we're still underwater. If confusion were a place, it would be here. That being said, I would like to set the record straight (granted, it will be as straight as the Mississippi, but here goes.)

This is a great town. This is a horrible town. Are you with me?

In the two years that I have been back since “The Thing,” I have seen incredible heartache and incredible joy. It's a little like living on the precipice of a love affair you're not sure is going to work out. I live in what local writer Chris Rose likes to call "the sliver by the river" or "the isle of denial.” I live uptown in the Irish Channel. My neighborhood didn't flood. Wind damage only. Our house; my husband's and mine, was still standing after the storm. It had blown off it's piers on one side, but didn't break. We lost some wood siding, part of our fence, a washer and dryer, and one refrigerator.

Note: I'm sure everyone has read about the refrigerators down here. I tried to clean mine out. It had been said you could salvage it. Take my advice, if you ever evacuate, take all of your food with you. The city morgue probably smelled better than the refrigerator. We had what looked like sesame seeds on the outside of it and things I could no longer identify on the inside. I can only imagine what anyone with flooding may have found.

Of all of the things that we lost; and the material things were not many, I miss the people that were ripped out of my life the most. I still see them occasionally, and talk as frequently as different jobs and time zones allow. However, there are no more Saturday night get-togethers of potluck dinners that rivaled even the finest restaurants, or quiet nights of playing cards with friends. Some stayed, some came back and then left, and others never returned.

Two years later, some of the residents are back. The roads are still horrible, but then they always were. There are still people living in FEMA trailers. People are still waiting to figure out how to rebuild and with what money. For all the billions of dollars poured into NOLA it is definitely going to take more.

The things that have changed are many. I would bet that we have the most politically and socially active people in the world living here now. We are going to rebuild it right. It will never be perfect, but that's okay because it will still be interesting. The schools are really trying to improve. People pick up their trash. You never realize how lucky you are to have garbage service until you don't have it. After the storm, we had the Katrina Krewe to help. Just a group of average citizens who wanted to pick up the trash. All volunteers. New Orleanians that needed to make a difference.&n bsp; Now we have Sidney Torres. The city practically sparkles. The fountain that hadn't worked in Coliseum Park for at least the 12 years I've lived here now cheerfully sprays water in a beautifully manicured park thanks to guerrilla maintenance crews. The government waste is being cut. When you don't have the resources, you start to really look at the bottom line. We have multi-million dollar condominiums going up everywhere. The French Quarter is nicer than it has ever been. We have more restaurants than we had pre-Katrina. Well, we do love our food here, it's part of life for us, like air for other people. People want to be here. The music is back. There are second lines everywhere on any random weekend.

There are also plenty of abandoned houses, overgrown lots, and homeless people. Changes will be made. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was NOLA. Brad Pitt started the "Pink House" campaign. I think it's great and it is going to make a difference. Sometimes the only thing keeping this town alive is the work and money celebrities bring here. CNN is done with our story. Our 15 minutes are up because American Idol is on. If it wasn't for Brad, Harry, Wynton, and Branford, I don't know if anyone in America would remember that we still need help. Brad's houses will be much more modern, but with a nod to traditional New Orleans homes. Those places are gone in the Ninth ward and St. Bernard. Some can be salvaged, some cannot. I don't see any problem with modernizing some of the architecture here. It has always been an amalgam of styles, as people added on to the homes they bought. My house is 165 years old in the front and 120 in the back. The inside is brand new. Times change. This city will always preserve its history, but it will also continue to look towards the future.

You had asked about issues important to me. I want to see the education system become a shining example for the rest of the world. I think it would help solve some of the other social issues in this town. Once the public schools provide the same education as the private schools, changes can start to take place in the homes as well. Education opens doors. Kids here have had a lot of doors slammed on them for a long time. It's time to give them opportunities that haven't existed in 50 years.

I want to see the neighborhoods rebuilt with the wisdom of lessons learned. We need to have the growth of the populace keep pace with the growth of the infrastructure. I WANT THE DUTCH TO BUILD OUR LEVEES!! I want a real levee system. Not one made out of tin cans. KATRINA DID NOT DESTROY NEW ORLEANS! BAD ENGINEERING DID! I want wetland restoration to take priority. I want the American government to realize how important this city is to the rest of the country. America needs our port. The Mid-west is crippled without it. I want our oil related tax revenues back. We could afford to rebuild ourselves. I don't know which political genius gave that up, or what he got for it, but I hope his house flooded. Greed is not the way to go.

This has turned into a rant. It's hard to talk about the way you feel without getting overly emotional. I know how refugees feel. I've been one in my own country. That will leave you angry and confused. I still can't watch clips of Katrina's aftermath without feeling as if my heart will literally shatter into a million pieces. Sometimes, I can't even drive by houses with water lines still on them without feeling slightly defeated. Other days, when the sun is shining, and I see a few houses sitting repaired and pristine among the wreckage, I feel the infinite joy of watching the miracle of birth and the resilience of the human spirit and know that everything will be just fine. It's only going to take time. Something this city has plenty more of, even if I never live to be that old. We've been here for 300 years. We'll be here for at least 300 more. We're just crazy-stubborn like that and besides, nobody cooks like we do.

Linda Dietrich

The Dietrichs
Thank you and I love you guys!

Breathing a Little Easier

Whew!!

Today, I found out that I was accepted for Anthem's cheaper health insurance plan, Essential KeyCare.

Instead of paying that $389 premium, I will now be paying $228, a savings of $161 dollars a month!

Now in order to get this, I did have to raise my deductible from my usual $500 to $1,500. So my goal is stay healthy.

Duh? When wasn't that the goal?

Gray skys are gonna clear up....

Remember the good luck I wanted? I think it worked.

I was very worried about this job I had been offered last December and then didn't hear anything about. Now it was a position working with the State and I knew it would take time but I also expected a "we're dealing with paperwork, please be patient" response when instead a voice mail and an email received no response.

Of course a girl still has to eat, so I started this temp job. However, in the course of being sent out on interviews, I was tempted and tried for a temp-to perm job (yes, I'd pretty much given up). Fortunately and unfortunately, they wanted to hire me immediately! And then, that is when damn Hope made its return. So, I had to turn down employer-paid health insurance and a higher salary.

Ugghh, my life for the last 4 years has been ALL about fresh starts and looking toward the future, when I really just want to be living that life NOW.

If this is the career (despite being low paying) that I want, this job (basically a paid internship, no benefits-thing) is the "intelligent" decision. It will get me in there before I even finish my degree, expose me to the issues, and get me acquainted with the main players in this town.

So yes, ideally this is the position I should have been in 15 years ago, but I didn't know myself well enough then. I had no idea what my strengths were or how deep my convictions would lie. I first had to experience a career I loved and have the realities of it (loneliness, no time for a social life, no help when needed, long hours, and little or no recognition for your hard work) slowly wear me down.

I received an email yesterday that said:

"Sorry for delay in getting back with you [ ] time got away from me on this. ...I have passed along the request to refill the position - will get back with you on either Tuesday or Wednesday, once I have heard back to see if you would still like to take on the position."

So all I can say is stay positive, despite all.

It seems to have worked this time. I also got into the two classes I wanted that were full to capacity, people dropped out the first night and I swooped right in! Remember, my whole reason for being in this city is to graduate. No classes being taken, no reason to be here.