tweaking the same old, same old

when not at my 9-5, my time has been spent on some projects i've been working on to bring a little transformation to my living space. mostly small details to things i already own. recently, i was finally able to acquire a set of linen sheets; which beyond the expected visual treat, makes going to sleep at night a delightful pleasure.

but then i needed to spruce up the sadly worn yellow striped bolster cover. with a linen one (of course), made of an antique flour sack i came across years ago and which has been languishing in my closet. it's soft to the touch, almost like flannel, but very thickly spun and woven. i had just enough material, with some creative patchwork and different linen endcaps, to recover the entire length.

which led to replacing the simple nightstand lamp with a cheeky edison steampunk concoction i was inspired to make after obsessing over an anthropologie version on pinterest. a bit of legwork to hardware, antique stores, and hobby shops combined with things i already had, and i was able to create something of the feel of the original. it's very nifty, and the delicate bits are safe from the kitties and dust.

after a little rearranging of the pictures above the lamp, i'm quite content with the feel of the space; still mine, just renewed.

there has to be a movement, and soon

i grow weary of evening television. more and more "feel-good" shows are cancelled out, and what remains are so many shows of violence, spewing with new ideas which are not necessarily good ideas. they've become a type of scrapbook in how to hurt someone; these someones being women most of the time. as if the twisted psyche of the mentally disturbed needed a reference manual of all the different ways to cause pain to the human body and spirit. above all, these shows perpetuate the victimization of women.

what bothers me the most is that by repeatedly showing women as victims of violence we do become numb to it, we almost expect that some form of violence will happen to us; because of course, television has shown us that. it worries me, because when you surrender to that thought, you loose your freedom to be you. you allow the fear of it to warp your life and how you live it.

society should step up, speak out that it is not acceptable to portray extreme violence as "entertainment". shows should focus on reforming what causes men to lash out at women, to how we portray women as sexualized beings alone, they should focus on letting girls and women know that it is never "all right" for another human being to cause them harm, they should push the idea that we are all deserving of the basic human right to live our lives without fear.

and then i saw this and thought, "yeah, i'm not alone in my thoughts."

little hiccups

well, turns out anastasiahandmade isn't available on etsy (even though 0 results showed up in the search). i didn't really know that until last night when i went to make the change over. so, looking to the thesaurus, i came across handcrafted. anastasiahandcrafted, that sounds even better! and luckily, was still available on etsy. i would have liked everything to be the same (less confusion), but the thought of getting another blog name, redoing the header, moving everything, and deleting this blog, makes my head hurt. bleh. would it be worth it, though?

changes

this would be the new blog. quite similar to the old, actually. perhaps a softer, earthier color palette; inspiration arising from my spinning. my dollhouse feels like the palette from birds in chandeliers. i love that palette.

off to do some research.
ah, what joy.

snafu

i'm thinking of changing something. i've begun to feel that i should move away from the title "birds in chandeliers", to a more definite title "*anastasia.handmade". it describes what i do better, and that it is myself which does these things. the "birds in chandeliers" is somewhat vague.

i was warned of this, of course; several years ago when i first started selling what i made. i was told to choose a name which represents me and my creations. own them, as it were. but, i wanted something fun, non-descriptive, non-confining.

the snafu to changing things is that the title is the address. what about bookmarks, past business cards, links, comments left to others? blah, a headache.

this has all been brought on because etsy is giving you the option of changing your store name, and if you choose to do so, they will change all the links within etsy and hearts to the new address.

i want to change my etsy store name, but then i started thinking i should change my blog name as well. so, what do you, my readers (thank you for that, by the way), think of this move? any advice for staging a technical switch gracefully?

ch-ch-changes

spinning cotton is really quite a joy on the kuchulu, the light weight of the spindle enables me to spin quite thin. the only times it broke was when i overestimated the distance between my fingers and the short fibers came free from my grasp. so far i've spun alpaca, cotton, and wool; tommorrow silk and then the world!!!!! (pinky and the brain moment there, sorry.)

i took some fresh photos today for my etsy shop, and created a new banner and profile icon. change is good, i think it's a matter of renewing how you see yourself, and pushing long held likes and preferences to the side a bit. here's hoping.