Wednesday 17 August 2011

For Sale: Inglot Palette

Hello hello!

Just a quickie - I'm selling this Inglot Palette. I literally never use it so I figure someone else might want it. I'm thinking £28 inc. p&p but I'm open to offers.

One of the shadows has a couple of slight nicks where I've failed at trying to get it out of the palette but basically its been used maybe 3 times at most?


SOLD
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Monday 15 August 2011

Feminism is not a dirty word.

Hello, hello!

I'm finally back from all of my travelling and galavanting about... I'm shattered but its been amazing. First off, let me recommend that you try and find a time when you do a few days of travelling solo. There's something incredible about travelling on your own, especially via public transport. You get to meet so many more interesting people than you do when travelling in a group or even in a pair - you instantly become more approachable... obviously it's important to stay safe when travelling solo (maybe I'll turn this into a longer blog post at some point) but seriously, go do it. I ended up chatting a a Brazilian guy who'd just been travelling in Sweden, a Slaughterhouse worker who does photography in his spare time and read The Sun purely for Fabulous magazine, a nice man who was intrigued by the unique colour of my dress, some wonderfully tattoo'd PHD students, a whole group of amazingly crazy silly people that looked after me for a whole weekend, two fantastic London based feminists who I bonded with over burger choices and an extremely interesting socialist-anarchist-feminist whilst waiting for our far too late trains. I possibly missed some people out there, but you get the idea. You travel solo, you meet amazing, random people.

I'm probably going to bring you a few blog posts about the stuff that went on at the Uk Feminista Summer School I've just been to - there was so much to take in and I'm still trying to process half of it. I filled an entire notebook and that doesn't include some of the random conversations and action planning things that happened.

I doubt anyone from Uk Feminista is reading this, but if they are, I really want to thank them for making this a free event. I mean, what can you get for free these days? Really not that much... but a whole weekend of listening to amazingly inspiring speakers?! Incredible.

Over the course of the weekend, I had the chance to attend 9 sessions on various aspects of feminism... some I found incredibly inspiring and useful, others less so. I know a list isn't the most interesting thing to read, but to give you some idea of the variety on offer, this is what I attended: Feminist Resistance: the past, present and future of activism; Every Movement needs a Front Line: the role of non-violent direct action in feminism; How to do.... Non-violent Direct Action; Women and the Revolution; what the Arab Spring holds for women; Under Attack: defending women's reproductive rights; How to... run an effective campaign; Activism in Theory and Practice: from research to the "real world";  All in It Together? How the cuts are hitting women hardest; The Global Struggle: International Feminist Resistance. See why my brain is exploding now?

For me, one of the most empowering things about this weekend was being able to see first hand that feminists really don't have a specific mould that they fit into. I mean I knew that, but I figured I'd be rejected because I'm not "feminist enough". Stupid right? But also totally understandable - I think any philosophy  that you're choosing to adopt can induce such fear. What if someone asks you a question that you can't answer? What if you need to defend yourself and can't? What if the Feminism police decide you're not good enough to be representing their ranks? Screw it I say. If someone has an issue with what you're choosing to believe in, that's their problem, not yours. It's SO incredibly important that we take a pro-active stance in not just our futures, but in the futures of the future generations. The rioting last week has only highlighted the need for change in our society.

I think it's crucial that we stop thinking of Feminism as a dirty word - we need to stop thinking of it as something negative and separatist and as something that's important to people of all genders, all backgrounds, all people everywhere. Don't be afraid to call yourself a feminist. Don't worry about what people will think - it doesn't mean you're crazy. It doesn't (necessarily) mean you're a troublemaker. It doesn't mean you have to fit yourself into a certain box or proforma of what a Feminist looks like or how a Feminist acts. It doesn't mean you have to start going on protests or reading lengthy academic texts. It does mean that you care about the need for equality for all, about fairness, about basic human rights. I can see no reason for a logical, rational person to not claim the word Feminist for themselves.

I'm going to leave you with two quotes from the weekend that have really struck me:

"When someone asks "Why are you a Feminist?", your reply should be "Why aren't you?" - Rosalind Miles (Men, this applies to you too)

"If you aren't on the table, you're on the menu" - Really, really important for us to think about. Where are we as women when the decisions are being made about our futures? If we don't speak up and speak out, we'll just get devoured in the process.

Questions:
Would you call yourself a Feminist? If not, why not?

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Saturday 6 August 2011

Free Frank Fernie

Hello lovelies



Today I went on a march/rally/protest (in the pouring rain!) for to support the Free Frank Fernie campaign. Frank is one of the ever increasing victims of political sentencing that are being used as martyrs to scare people out of their right to protest. He has no previous criminal record but has been sent to prison for 12 months for throwing 2 sticks during a very violent protest (violence mainly being administered by the police who’d been hitting and beating him for a significant amount of time before). The sticks the threw were a) extremely light and b) didn’t hurt anyone. One clipped a police officer in full riot gear. That was it. People who beat their wives, knock people over in their cars, get into bar fights and break peoples noses get less time in prison than Frank has. The judge himself said he was using Frank as an example.
For more information about how you can get involved in the Free Frank Fernie campaign, visit freefrankfernie.info and spread the word via retweeting or mentioning this if you read it.
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Friday 5 August 2011

New hair and a couple of pretty dresses!

Hello lovelies!

I'm absolutely loving reading all your wishes over on this post - if you haven't made one yet, why not head over now and do it? I know a couple of people have already had their wishes granted :D Such a wonderful thing to see happening (even if it is really a sneaky bit of SEO work!)

I thought I'd share my new hair and a couple of pretty dresses I got in the sale with you! I desperately needed something light and uncreasable for my little jaunt to London/Birmingham next week (I want to travel as lightly as possible!) and I stumbled across these two beauties for £12 in the sale... but, even more excitingly, they were on buy one get on free so I paid a teeny tiny £6 each!


Dorothy Perkins (I totally forgot to pop a belt on... it looks far nicer with a belt!)

I also got my hair cut this week... it was SO good to feel well enough to have a wander around town and to feel strong enough to sit up for a hair cut. It's about 3 months since I first had it cut short and I had a bit of a panic because I couldn't go to the hairdresser who originally did it but the woman who ended up cutting it did an even better job and I think I love this even more than I loved my original short do!


Questions:
Have you done anything exciting this week?
Have you managed to pick up anything in the sale?
Are you impulsive or do you like to plan in advance?
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Thursday 4 August 2011

Have your wish granted by a real life Fairy Hobmother!

Hello Lovelies!

Today I received the most unexpected, lovely surprise in my inbox - a visit from the Fairy Hobmother. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that the Fairy Hobmother from Appliances UK has been wandering around the blogging world, granting wishes here, there and everywhere to bring us bloggers a bit of unexpected joy and happiness in the form of lovely treats. I first saw her on Lily's blog and decided to leave a little wish in the comments - my wish was for a lovely bundle of fabric to make pretty skirts and dresses with.

I thought nothing of it and had actually forgotten about it until that email popped up in my inbox granting my wish with a very, very generous gift voucher indeed!

And, being the lovely Fairy Hobmother that she is, I've got a feeling that if you leave a comment in this post, some of you might just get a visit from the Fairy Hobmother too.

So go on, make a wish - I can't guarantee it'll get granted but if you never wish, you'll never know :)
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Tuesday 2 August 2011

A summer of conquering fears

Hello Lovelies!

Sorry it's been a bit quiet - I was on holiday last week! I won't bore you with a full recount, but there's some snaps here if you fancy a nosey!

You might remember this post about taking the bull by the horns I did a while ago - well, it seems like that's becoming the theme of my summer. That and conquering my fears. One of silver linings of being ill has been that I've had time to take stock of my life and get a grip. I realised, after some long chats with lovely friends, that I'm often held back by silly fears! So I've decided I'm gonna kick them to the curb this summer.

I started on holiday by.....


Going in the Sea! I've been terrified of the sea for as long as I can remember. I think it all started when we went on a holiday where the beach was littered with washed up jellyfish and got worse when we went to France and I saw the biggest jellyfish I've ever seen washed up on the beach. They were HUGE - at least 30cm across. It sort of put me off the whole shebang. However, it's kinda silly really so I decided that the beautiful beaches of Saunderfoot and Tenby were the perfect places to get over my fear AND I DID!! I went in the sea nearly every day (although I forgot my bikini so I didn't actually swim in it).

Emily 1 Fears 0

I'll be carrying on the fear conquering by...

Going to the Free Frankie Fernie protest this Saturday. I've chatted before about my desire to protest but my fear of crowds/getting into trouble, but again, I need to stop faffing and start doing. (If you're wondering who Frankie Fernie is, he's a student from York who was given a 12 month sentence for throwing 2 sticks during a protest. He's one of many victims of a wave of political sentencing being used to make an example of protestors to scare people out of their right to protest.). So fingers crossed...

Emily 2 Fears 0


My next bit of fear conquering is a big one... I'm actually a bit terrified about it...

I'm going to That London on my own for the first time next Thursday and Friday. I've been to London a couple of times before - my ex-boyfriend was from Surrey originally so we'd go down a fair bit to see his family and stuff but it still generally terrified me. However, there's something pretty awesome about London that I love (in theory) so I figured I'd use some of my free time to go have an explore. I'll be staying with my best friend from Uni (who I lived with for 4 years) so I know I'll have a bit of refuge but still... this is a pretty big one for me. Feel free to suggest awesome (free/cheap) things for me to do/see/eat whilst I'm there (and if you fancy meeting up for a drink let me know and I'll see if I can squeeze you in!) And seeing as the tickets are already booked I guess that means it's....

Emily 3 Fears 0

I'll be back home on Friday but dashing out again on Saturday for the one that started all this fear conquering...


The Uk Feminista Summer School - a weekend of learning and hanging out with over 600 feminist activists. I'm pretty excited about this really. The reason this is fear conquering is because I'm kinda shy and have a bit of an inferiority complex - I'd normally avoid things like this in case I didn't know enough or wasn't good enough to get involved. Pah! That's what I say to that Pah!! So of course we know it's

Emily 4 Fears 0

It's seeming that I'm doing pretty well at beating out those fears. I'm sure there's some other's that'll crop up but I'm feeling fairly confident that I'll at the very least try to kick their butts!

Questions:
What are you afraid of?
Have you ever conquered a big fear?
What are your plans for the summer?

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