Just because someone intends to do the whole goals and accomplishing said goals thing, doesn’t mean that they’ll actually be able to do it every week. I didn’t expect it to fall apart in January, but whatever.
In good news I actually managed to make a dress I was proud to have M wear on Serge. I figured out some stretch stitches on my regular machine, figured out how to use the funky nylon thread, and put it all together in a cute pink dress. Pictures forthcoming. Early morning pictures don’t turn out nearly how you want them to of course, so I’m hoping this weekend is better.
The laundry is out of the living room, now I just need to find a place for the baby bath tub. Everything else, not so much. So, lets try that again, this time with more feeling!
- Meal plan & shop to make February the month of not eating out as much, hoping to start a trend.
- Keep the kitchen table clean. (This one won’t ever go away I think)
- Learn how to make gathers/ruffles on Serge.
- Make a dress for H.
- TAKE THE STUFF TO THE DAMN DONATION PLACE. Or call Hoarders.
I went through my photos of my nursing bra conversions and realized that I didn’t get the right ones. Good news, I need new bras, so I’ll be fixing that soon. I have this goal of being big on Pinterest just once in my life. Especially since there seems to be a lack of plus size sewing stuff out there. Its good to have goals, right?
Rage Against The Pink Princess Machine
Well, if it isn’t the mommy wars, it is the rage against the pink princess machine.
I am a child of the 70′s. I am a child of a super feminist mother who was herself raised by a single parent in the 50′s & 60′s. My mom’s generation had to fight against the idea that women should be silent supporters of their husbands who didn’t work, didn’t voice opinions, and didn’t really matter beyond their ability to have children.
I am a woman who was given a boy’s name, not allowed to wear pink, not allowed to shave my legs, not allowed to be “girly”. My hair was cut short (I have school pictures where if it weren’t for my pink & blue giant glasses you would think I was a boy), I never learned about makeup, never really learned to be a “girl”.
It took me years to realize that I look pretty good in a dark pink and that it was OK to like the way I looked and to show off my curves.
My view of the whole Princess vs. Anti-Princess is pretty skewed, I admit it.
Here’s the deal though. We, as parents, are responsible for it getting this way. This place where there is toy segregation. We are the ones who only take our girls down the one aisle or discourage our boys from playing with dolls. We ultimately control who spends the money.
Maybe you’re like me, wanting to make sure your girl gets what you didn’t get. Maybe you’re really in to those girly things yourself. Maybe you just don’t have the energy to fight the marketing machine because you’re too busy trying to support your family and sleep through the night. However, we have no one to blame but oursevlves.
You see though, its not that hard. In the new Lego sets, the ones aimed at girls, there is an Inventor’s Workshop. Disney, those lovely people who brought you the helpless princess of the 30′s though well, Jasmine (because Tiana and Rapunzel sort of kick ass), also have Tinkerbell who is, wait for it, a tinker, and inventor. They aren’t as easy to find, but thanks to Stan Lee, the Marvel Universe is full of strong female characters. (though I challenge their new owner Disney to do a better job of licensing those characters) In the DC Universe, there is Wonder Woman. You can find not remotely pink Wonder Woman merchandise in everything from baby onesies, to Little People, to Polly Pocket. For Christmas, my six year old niece picked out Wonder Woman shirts for my 6 month old, my four year old, and for me. Yes, they are pink, but they have Wonder Woman on them!
Its easy to blame Lego for marketing to what so many girls seem to want, but that doesn’t mean that you have to buy in to it. Buy the Inventor’s Workshop and then buy the Cars set with Tow Mater & Holly Shiftwell and while you’re at it, get the Millennium Falcon set too because that has all the best characters including Leia. They can have a party in the tree house. I always wanted a tree house.
By the way, if you go to the “girl” section of the Lego site, the pink stuff is only a fraction of what is there. Yes, there are no ninjas in the girl section, but there are pirates. Girl everywhere know pirates are better than ninjas. Also, I would have killed when I was a kid for some girl lego people. This set sort of rocks my world.