Although Morgana Cryptoria is known for their luscious & decadent lipsticks, I have to say, their eyeshadows are quite spectacular. They’re buttery, highly-pigmented, and well-blended; I love their depth and their multi-dimensional sparkle.
But to be quite honest, I’m not a huge fan of a loose mineral shadow. I hate transporting powders, and I loathe the jars: they’re a huge nightmare to store, and I always seem to forget what I have since I hate sifting through the jars.
I recently started pressing my loose shadows, and I decided to press my Morgana eyeshadows and make a Cleopatra palette. I think it turned out pretty well for my first pressing attempt! I’ll try to swatch these later – I got home as the sun was setting and didn’t have the time to swatch. My TKB Trading order came in, and I was hurriedly and excitedly trying to put the pans in their new home. :D
I wish the palettes were 3×4 instead of 2×6, but hey, at $6.26 each, I’m not really complaining.
These eyeshadows were very, very difficult to photograph! Even in natural light, it was very hard to capture their true colors. Aspbite was the most difficult. In the pictures, it looks very blue, but it’s actually much more purple. See – what did I tell you about depth? ;)
All items were happily purchased by me!
I have absolutely had it.
I am filled with seething rage when men think it’s okay to catcall and yell vulgar things at me from their vehicles if they see me walking by. No, asshole, I am not going to give you my number, especially if you have the audacity to shout things at me while I’m walking on the streets.
I ignore these people. But you know what makes it worse? That despite giving these trolls zero minutes of my time, I am still subjected to ruder, louder, and nastier comments. And if I choose to respond rudely, I know that I’ll be called names or have these assholes insult my appearance. How is this okay?
It pisses me off that certain men find it okay to objectify women. I am not someone’s sex object, nor am I to be treated as one. I hate how men act like women automatically owe them sex; women owe you shit.
As a person, I feel extremely violated after these events, and it frightens me with the frequency at which this occurs.
To all of you insolent men who feel that this poor behavior is okay, fuck you. I truly hope that one day, someone will make you feel as equally worthless and violated; don’t even start with how all of this bullshit is supposed to be a compliment. FUCK YOU.
E.E. Cummings is one of my favorite poets. I love the way his writing can convey so much emotion in so many words. I like how he doesn’t take himself seriously, and that throughout his career, he constantly experimented with his work.
More often than not, I find it very difficult to recommend one of his poems if they cannot be read in their original format. If I do post one of his poems or part of his poems, I try to maintain their typesetting.
That being said, I recently purchased E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904-1962 (Revised, Corrected, and Expanded Edition). Let me tell you: this book is a brick, a wonderful, complete brick of his oeuvre, as the author himself intended.
While the formatting is incorrect, for the sake of legibility, I beg for your forgiveness in advance. Darling, XV is for you. Soon, you will find the strength in your beautiful heart.
Darling, I’ve walked away from a wreck or two myself,
or crawled, and earned the name of fool, full sore.
But let’s take off this one last time: no net,
no harness, no nothing underneath to break our fall.
Th’ animal Spirits that from pure blood arise
are what get us aloft and the fuel by which we fly.
So hold on, baby, we’re lifting off.
- August Kleinzahler
I love Mitch O’Connell‘s artwork. I love his girls, and I love his style. Sublime Stitching offers his work as an embroidery pattern; somehow, I have three copies of it. :p
I’ve stitched up a reform school girl for my friend Ryan, but I wanted to stitch up something new for myself. I ended up with a beautiful redhead with rock-hard tits who won’t take crap from anyone! Can I say I love her and want to be her? ;)
Work-in-progress shot.
Completed piece.
Detail of shirt. I love the texture that the seed stitch creates.
I love backstitch. LOVE. I used metallic thread for the lighter and the stars: it was difficult to work with, even with my thread conditioner. Use sparingly. ;)
I stitched my girl on the one of Sublime Stitching’s tea towels. Personally, I’m not crazy about them. I don’t the quality is up to par as other materials I’ve embroidered upon. I personally and highly recommend American Chair Flour Sack Towels. They are a dream to stitch.
This was my first offshore regatta, and man, was it brutal.
For the past couple of weekends, it had been exceptionally windy. The local sailing club races were postponed due to near gale force winds + small craft advisory warnings, and the mixed-doubles were postponed as well. Kevin and I still went out on Stinger (J-105) to test the diesel for the Heald Bank. We saw gusts up to 36 knots in the channel. We pulled out the jib, and I immediately had to trim with a winch handle. We were going 8 knots downwind, jib only.
But anyway. :)
This weekend the winds were still honking but averaging 20-25 knots. There were about 5-6 boats in our PHRF spin-class, but all had withdrawn before the start except for Leading Edge (J-35). We ended up overtaking them with the red asymmetrical spinnaker, and soon enough, they fell further and further behind… After awhile, we couldn’t see them.
Oh, before I go on, I SAW DOLPHINS. DOLPHINS!! I love dolphins!!
At this point, we weren’t sure if they had withdrawn. However, we held onto our course. We were hitting 16 knots in 20-25 knots downwind. There were a few close calls where Stinger almost broached… Good times.
Unfortunately for me, I got pretty seasick. Motion Eaze did not help, nor did the ginger chews and anti-nausea medication. Downwind legs are not my favorite – I tend to get pretty sick on them, and it didn’t help that there were two downwind legs with a finishing upwind leg.
Words cannot express just how miserable I was. It was tough being on deck. I know people recommend going topside for air, but I wanted to sleep it off. Every movement was tedious and toiling. Water sloshed everywhere, and we were all wet, even with foulies on. The wind didn’t let up either.
I managed to pull myself on deck after throwing on some more layers. It was so painful. I was ready to lose it. This race never. seemed. to. end. And I felt incredibly guilty: I was a totally and completely useless crew member. :/
I forced/pulled myself on deck during the upwind leg, and I made myself see the glory of the stars. :) Charles pointed out a few constellations… Saw Orion, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Orion, Libra, Scorpio, Saturn… It was phenomenal & worth mustering all the strength in my body just to see them.
rarely-beloved a single star is uttered,and i think of you
I ended up going down below to sleep off the remaining seasickness… The upwind leg was somewhat more merciful, but the boat was hitting the water pretty hard. I yanked myself up back on deck when I noticed the wind had died down and Stinger was gliding over the water.
What a gorgeous, gorgeous sail. The wind was blowing 10-15 knots, and we were floating oh-so-effortlessly. God, I live for the stunning night sails. We finished at 0310 and made our way through the endless channels.
The Houston Ship Channel is pretty remarkable. I saw a lot of neat ships on this race, heard interesting radio bulletins (hey, they were new and interesting to me!), and heard horns blare while pissed off captains bitched about sailboats lol. Thankfully, my skipper and crew were extremely conscientious of right of way and yielding to large ships/avoiding them whenever possible.
I’d like to mention just what a *nightmare* it was to pee. I cannot recall another moment in my entire life where I wished I had a penis. If I was on deck, I had to unclip my harness to head down below. I then had to take off my harness, unzip my PFD, undo the straps on my outer shell, unzip said shell, unzip and drop my bibs, un-velcro and untie my shorts, and then pull down my underwear. And then I got to put all this stuff back on when I was done. AUUUUGH. PAIN. In. The. Ass. And with all these layers (including my sports bra, baselayer, and midlayer), I felt like a godforsaken whale. It was not easy to get everything on quickly and smoothy. -___-
I didn’t get many pictures on this trip due to the fact that I was incapacitated for most of the race… But I did get a few when we were heading back.
I have never been happier to see this bridge.
These sunrises make it so much sweeter.
Charles (super major badass – I have so much respect for this man) & Kevin, my so-called sailing husband who I attempt to divorce each year during the mixed-doubles. ;) It was cold. We were all cold and wet.
And everything was so still; everything was glass.
We headed back home, cleaned up the boat, and parted ways. It was a pleasure sailing with everyone on Stinger. I wish I could’ve been a lot more useful, though! I then went to my mom’s house, ate out of her fridge, watched her cable, and then crashed.
And so passed the weekend. :)
Coupled in with a handful of other things, I’m wondering if sailing is really for me.
Minus a handful of people who I’ve truly developed a friendship with in the sailing community, I still feel like an outsider. I feel incredibly awkward and out of place at many events. I’m really bad at faking things, and I loathe making small talk (this isn’t an open invitation to talk about the state of affairs in the US either). I want meaning in transactions that are more than a simple hello.
Here’s what I come from:
I’m still a new sailor. I like going out on the water and pushing myself. I like to work hard and give everything when I’m engaging in any activity. I don’t make that much money, and everything I buy related to sailing is done on discounts, including my boat. If people need help or need someone to be there, I can make the commitment and be there for them. I want people who think they can’t boat to come out and check it out: that boats just aren’t for people who have money or don’t have to worry about expenses; that it’s for anyone who has an interest, regardless of privilege.
I thought I would find people who I could relate to while reading journals and blogs online. I’ve rarely found this to be the case either. I’m tired of people labeling their sailing trips as “projects.” I’m tired of hearing about people “raising awareness” about an issue in order to get companies to sponsor their trip. Honestly – what else needs more awareness? To me, an admirable project would raise awareness while actually doing something effective at the same time.
Effective: petitioning a company to sponsor or donate to a local race where extenuating circumstances (effort, costs, logistics) would typically prevent something like this from happening.
NOT effective: petitioning a company to sponsor you to sail around the world/continent/peninsula by giving you free stuff so that you can write about how people should know about [this cause]. How does this directly benefit anyone else other than you?
I’m also tired of how people talk incessantly about the stuff they need on a boat or how wonderful their life is now that they have a boat. Because frankly, I don’t need someone belittling me or acting condescendingly because my life choices do not mirror theirs. Yes, I work 40+ hours a week, and while my life is not glamorous, it isn’t bad either. It provides me with the capacity of doing the sailing that I can on my budget and my time.
For once, I’d like to come across a blog not written by assholes or dreamers who absolve themselves of any real responsibilities – and I’m not just talking about money. Personally, I’d like to read about true adventures that involve bad weather, challenges, and things that went completely wrong – in addition to the moments that make sailing worthwhile. Life isn’t perfect, and I like to know that others have come into contact with adverse situations and how they pulled themselves out of it. I don’t want to hear about the new free swag people got or about how lucky they were to experience something that most people would never do in their lifetime.
Why can’t people just sail without making it a big fucking deal? To be the next sailing darlings? For more sponsorships?
I wish people would sail because they liked sailing, not because they’re trying to make money from it or play off of people’s emotions to make a buck. Sailed because they want to have the personal satisfaction of doing so instead of how they’d be viewed in others’ eyes. Sailed and were brutally honest with themselves and their audience.
Ultimately, I think a majority of people lose their identities when they cruise and maintain a blog; they no longer are themselves but are by products of their sponsorships and future sponsorships. Whatever happened to some raw emotion and with people being real? I’m obviously not saying that people should be angry, but I miss reading about people being passionate about their trip, especially compared with the tales of sailors from the past.
I’m not sure when the “sailing lifestyle blog” caught on, but they disappoint me. They’re not realistic, and they project things that aren’t true.
Sail because you want to sail and that you love to sail.
Because I’d love to hear about your trip, your race, your time on the water – without the need to impress anyone.
let it go-the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise-let it go it
was sworn to
go
let them go-the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers-you must let them go they
were born
to go
let all go-the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things-let all go
dear
so comes love
I grew Beanie’s Awesome Mix a few days ago!
Here’s SproutPeople’s description:
Green, Crimson & Red Chief Lentils, Green, Marrowfat & Yellow Peas, Beige Garbanzos and Adzukis
The most beautiful pastel bean blend ever.
Great as a snack or in recipes both raw and cooked!Nutritional info:
Vitamins A, B, C and E
Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Niacin, Phosphorus, Potassium
All Essential Amino Acids
Protein: 20-25%
I really like this blend. It’s perfect on top of salads and adds a lovely crunch and bite to them. I’m currently enjoying these tossed with the Ginger People’s Wasabi Ginger dipping sauce/dressing as shown in the picture. :) It’s not slime from poor rinses!
These grew quickly, like the San Fran mix. I actually rinsed these three times, and look at the tails on these!
These are the recent ATC swaps I sent out to my partners on Swapbot. I’m glad that everyone liked them so much! Thank you so much for the hearts. <3
Egg ATC Swap sent to @KraftyKaren
Cardstock, recycled book pages, gold ink, doily, glaze, mica powders, Amy Butler paper bird, sticker, iridescent beads.
Profile-based ATC Swap sent to @Marsha907
Cardstock, recycled book pages, sequins, shell sticker trim, chipboard arrow, letter sticker, Patagonia catalogue (of a sea town in Norway – that’s what the “n” stands for!).
Journey Altered Text 1 sent to @grammag
Cardboard cereal box, recycled book page, glaze, mica powders, onyx-tone beads, Amy Butler paper dragonfly. Text: “all the chapters process unexpectedly” – this was made based on grammag’s profile.
Journey Altered Text 2 sent to @kurtina
Cardboard cereal box, recycled book page, black ink, gold ink, doily, glaze, mica powders, gold seed beads, sequins, trimmed, bird stamp, wave sticker trim. Text: “one continued in the magnificent field.” Really liked how this one turned out! The red sequins + gold seed beads are poppies. :)
