Friday, July 29, 2011

I Wouldn't Mind...



This dress from JulyS on Etsy. Priced at $59.00, it seems like a deliciously soft option for these nasty summer days. The small open back at the bottom provides a neat cool factor, both in the literal and figurative sense.

JulyS is run by 3 ladies that design and make everything in the shop. They have tons more goodies! Visit them here.

All images in this post belong to JulyS.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Santuario de Animales San Francisco de Asís: A Visit

I know that my blog is usually about unicorns, rainbows, thrifted finds, and puppies (with the occasional feminist/academic rant thrown in for good measure), but I'd like to get serious for a second. If I sound too preachy, forgive me, but this is very important to me and I'd like to share it with you.

Ever since I was a wee little girl, I wanted a dog. In fact, I remember begging my parents for one, but no chance. Perhaps it's better that it happened like that because when I was 13, a dog wandered into my father's workplace. He became our first rescue, Chewy. Two years later, Maya broke into our home and our hearts. In college, I saved a puppy from being run over. She became Patch, our youngest until I moved to the metro area and came home one day. Genghis was at my apartment door, expecting me, looking like he was about to say, "About time you got here! I'm your new dog!"

My family and I love animals. If I could, I'd adopt more dogs, but there is no more space. That is why I try to donate and/or dedicate time to spreading the word about animal shelters and charities. SASFAPR, also known as the Santuario de Animales San Francisco de Asís, is specially close to my heart as it is in my hometown. A no-kill shelter, SASFAPR is run by Dellymar Bernal, an incredible woman who dedicates her time and gives all of her heart to these animals.



A short while ago, I visited the shelter to donate some things, and I took some pictures. Dellymar walked a group of visitors around the locale, explaining to us what they do and introducing their tenants.









They serve over 300 animals. Their facilities are quite small, and currently, they do not have water or power, as the land's contracts were not renovated by their benefactor. But they make do with what they have, and are hoping to soon move out to a bigger, better facility, with more room for the cats and dogs.







Maintaining the shelter is a hard endeavor. They help animals heal, spay, and let's not forget the costs of feeding and cleaning after over 300 animals. However, every person there is a volunteer and they do it out of love. Love for these animals and the hope that they will soon find forever homes. If you live near the area, and desire to donate they need the following:


(Newspapers, clorox, cleaning agents, treats, dry and moist food for cats and dogs, mops, buckets, scoopers, disposable gloves and surgical masks, 33 gallon trash bags.)







Please help. Adopt, donate, or sponsor one of these lovely creatures today. They will be forever thankful. And you will be all the more awesome for it. Visit SASFAPR's webpage here. Or drop by their Facebook and ask how you can help make a difference.



Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

EBEW: Thrift

Yay! Thrift! Let's do this!



I've got a whole lot of outfit going on here...in retrospect, I would've done it a little differently. But I still like the principle. Dresses and blazers are two of my favorite things, but they don't necessarily always work well together. And that belt is throwing the outfit off. Had it been another dress...or maybe another belt...

Oh well. The point of dressing up is experimenting. There will be successful outfits and there will be some not-as-successful ones. Like I've said before, the point is always to try!

Everything in this outfit is thrifted. Blazer, dress, belt, and shoes, all thrifted. Total cost of my outfit? A whopping five dollars. Yup, you read right. $5.00! I've already worn the blazer to death, and the dress is usually worn blazerless, but with a belt, when I'm on the west side of the island. And the shoes have seen their fair share of action too...found them at the fleamarket for $2.00! And they're Nine West, score!

I'd like to thank Jentine and Everybody Everywhere for making this happen. I think that, not only do we get to see each others thrifty styles, we also promote thrifting. And thrifting is good for the Earth, the wallet, and the soul.

Keep thrifting!

Thrift | Everybody, Everywear

Friday, July 15, 2011

On the Subject of Weight

Weight is a very personal subject matter. Whatever you do or don't do to your body is a highly individual decision that shouldn't be influenced by society. Friends and/or family are the only ones that I believe have some say on the matter, particularly if you are in a dangerous situation caused by your weight. But, other than that, I don't think anyone should intervene.

My problem is that many blogs/people/media outlets feel it's their business to go around policing people's bodies, in particular, their weight, shape, and size. Apparently, being a certain size is only acceptable in certain situations. And most of these situations are hypersexualized or highly fetishized. In the end, you're not being loved or accepted for yourself. You're being tentatively welcomed in by molding into their notions of what is acceptable in weight, shape, and size. If you don't concede, fit in, you can ship out.

I think I am particularly sensitive to this because my teenage years were spent with a couple of extra pounds on. While I am tall and many people would argue that the weight wasn't that visible, it was visible enough for some people to poke fun at. I didn't enjoy it, but I didn't give the matter much thought, as I honestly considered high school just a pit stop for a greater time in life. What really annoyed me, in the years to come, were the concepts attached to people who carry extra weight and the way that weight loss/gain/etc. was approached.

This all came to a head during a conversation with a good friend of mine. We began talking about a thread on social media that she started innocently enough. A short while ago, there was a "No Fat Talk" week, and she posted about that on Google Buzz. The conversation went well until some people started reacting negatively to the concepts of fat and no fat talk. That is where our dialogue started.

A summary: the article discussed how a "No Fat Talk" week was implemented to avoid negative body image and to reinforce the idea that beauty was not tied to fat. They interviewed people who worked in dance, an area that is rife with heavy pressure to conform to a body beauty ideal. The concept seemed to work well, but there are still body image issues.

While I understand what "No Fat Talk" week is about, I can also see why people were lashing back. Eliminating the word "fat" from our conversation isn't going to eliminate body issues. Oh no. They are still there. If we did not work with positive reconditioning and self-acceptance, the word fat will have an effect, whether or not it is used in conversation. I understand that people use weight as an arbiter of health and attractiveness. For example, "You look great! Did you lose weight!" or "Wow, you've come into your shape." Things like that always point towards weight gain or loss. And we cannot use weight as an arbiter of health, happiness, or style.

My biggest gripe comes from the fact that people focus on weight so much as an issue of fashion or image. Nobody discusses the dangers of weight loss or gain. Done radically or unnecessarily, you put yourself in dangerous situations. Perhaps we should talk about weight in regards to health: physical, emotional, and psychological. After all, you could be skinny, but if you do not work out and keep your body healthy, you could have a plethora of health problems that a person that could be considered overweight (but works out) has.

Weight should not be a measure of happiness. For some, weight loss or gain will come with happiness, but I believe it is derived from the changes we see, not just because we are subjecting ourselves to roles. Happiness comes from accepting yourself and achieving things that make you feel good. My own weight loss brought me happiness not only because I found myself better in a physical image sense, but because my health was very much improved. My back problems got better, my knee pain subsided.

Perhaps this is my biggest problem with fashion lately. With magazines like Vogue Curvy, that feature one type of "curvy" and it is a highly fetishized and sexualized sort. When you have people like Karl Lagerfeld saying things like "Narrow ribcages are the chicest thing." or "The body has to be impeccable. If it's not, buy small sizes and eat less food."

Yes, the body has to be impeccable. Impeccably healthy, impeccably loved, no matter what. You can be the most fantastic looking person on the outside, but if you are emotionally, psychologically, and physically ill, you're not achieving anything.

Remember: your body is your own. You should be healthy, inside and out. There is beauty in all of us, don't let anybody police you into destroying yourself.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

EBEW: Yellow

Yellow | Everybody, Everywear



Finally! A post and I do EBEW on time. Fabulous! How is everyone? I don't mean to pop in and out sporadically, but I really do keep up with everyone. I just never manage to get up a post. I'm sorry! I will schedule them...do my best to buckle down and get out a couple of posts.

Anyway, I've been wanting to do EBEW for a while. And I have! Except I either never took a picture or forgot to post about it. Oops. Oh well, here's my first EBEW post! I was originally going to wear a maxi skirt, but since we have a nice little storm sitting right on top of us, that wasn't going to happen. On went the pants. Pants are so comfortable. I'd missed you so, pants!

Outfit details:
Top: Hand me down from Mom
Vest: Target
Pants: Burlington Coat Factory
Shoes: Coach