feminism: refreshed

i've considered myself a feminist for a while now, but since i haven't had a women's studies class this semester, and haven't been able to attend womyn's equality, i've been a little out of it.

last night, womyn's equality set up an event - jessica valenti, author and founder of feministing.com, came to speak at our campus. it was so awesome.


these are the books she's written:




i've briefly flipped through my roommate's copy of he's a stud she's a slut, and i was so impressed. it made me critically think about everything.

i would suggest picking up one of her books sometime, and reading feministing.com.
i think you'll be glad you did.

and now, i leave you with some new pantene ads. you can kind of see the product, right?



'nuff said.

after spring break

my spring break was this past week, and it was much needed.
mostly i caught up on my sleep and shot a few rolls of film, but i scored some new digs from old navy, including a new swim suit!
if only it were warm and sunny enough to wear it. i'm really done with winter, michigan.

i watched a few movies with my family over break, but when my family was busy, i downloaded and watched vicky christina barcelona. as a woody allen fan, it was only a matter of time before i watched it and instantly fell in love. and as soon as i got back to kalamazoo i watched it again!



scarlett johansson is one of my favorite favorite favorite actresses of all time, so of course i enjoyed seeing her in this film. i definitely identified with her character, christina, the most. (and not just because we're both into photography!)



i'd never heard of javier bardem before i saw this, which is unfortunate because he is gorgeous!
dark hair, deep eyes, and a thick spanish accent? yes please. (i think his eyes look a lot like jason's. we just got back together, btw.)


i've only seen penelope cruz in vanilla sky and now this, and she's growing on me. i think she's exotically beautiful and very talented. and i wish my hair would look like that!



so anyway, if you haven't seen this movie yet, you definitely should.
it opened my mind just a little bit more.

p.s. i think it's funny that this happened to take place in spain, when my roommate, jackie has been in spain this past week! i can't wait to see how her trip went!

secretary of the arts

i came across an amazing news story this morning that i can't wait to share with everyone!
apparently mr. quincy jones, a man that wears many hats in the music biz, has asked obama about appointing a secretary of the arts, a cabinet-level position that would be the head of our cultural development.

i am so excited about the possibility of this position because of the potential there could be for the american public to gain more understanding about the arts/fine art, and for there to be better representation for the arts in our schools and the country in general.
many other countries have ministers of the arts, cultural secretaries, and the like. (most of which i imagine are in europe, and we know how much they love and support the arts.)

photo by me!

so if you're excited about this position also, what can you do about it?
there happens to be an online petition on the matter, which has about 111,585 supporters so far.
if you do support this, share the petition with everyone!
i'm not 100% sure how legit it is, but with that many people i'm pretty sure.
it can't hurt, anyway.

what do you think about having a secretary of the arts?

fashion inspiration: carrie bradshaw

now, i know you're all thinking she's not a real person, but she still has amazing style and the knack for really pulling it off!
sex and the city's carrie bradshaw is probably the character i most identify with on the show; and style-wise i like her outfits the best! (although samantha is a scream!)
(by the way, i have successfully downloaded all seasons of satc! if you're familiar with torrents at all, ravydavy has great ones of all the seasons. check it out!)

so hopefully there's some sex and the city fans out there. anyway, here are a few outfits that i'm inspired by.
happy monday!





by the way, do you love sex and the city, or another similar show?
if so, who's your favorite character/style inspiration, and why?

inspiration: weird knits, and lots of links

i love crafts, don't you? there's something very calming and centering about the process of them.

i was looking around online the other day for some different knitting and crocheting techniques i wanted to try, and i stumbled across some really awesome (and weird) stuff!

first off, i saw this awesome hat on castoff, and i wanted to try to figure out how to do this loopy stitch.

so i googled for a while and found this page which shows you how to knit loopy, and this page that shows how to crochet loopy. so, whichever one you choose, you too can make this awesome stitch! once i'm done with all of my christmas knits, i might have to start on this!

then i stumbled upon pick me!, which features a lot of different kinds of knits, but one that particularly grabbed my attention. recycled plastic bag knitting! yeah, for real!
here's some examples of great things to knit/crochet out of plastic bags:

of course, anything knitted that you can think of you could use this plastic bag technique for! a quick search on google, and you'll find knitted plastic bag jewelry, bags, shoes, and even sculptures. it's really quite amazing!
here are some links to get you started, and some links just for cool knits!

• marlo's crochet corner - tutorial on how to make plastic bags into "yarn"
  
• how to make your own crocheted plastic bag shoes
• how to make your own sexy hamburger costume
• yokoo's etsy shop - she has the most amazing style
  
• microrevolt - a sweet knitting community that also has their own pattern generator
• knitting pattern central - a huge database of completely free knitting patterns
• crochet pattern central - you get the idea
  

if you have any other questions, suggestions for posts, or just general comments about my blog, i'd love to hear what you have to say! please leave me a comment! have a fabulous weekend!