July 25th - July 31st - Week in the Life 2011

A seven-day documentary project, Week In The Life is an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of your life with photos and words. The albums I’ve created using the basics outlined below are some of my most treasured in that they are wonderfully true representations of my family’s life at a particular point in time. From the mundane to the profound, it’s those simple little everyday moments that I treasure most.

If you choose to embark on this project, especially for the first time, I encourage you to read through the comments from previous years. There are many suggestions, answers, additional information, etc. that can be found within the comment sections of each post. And remember, there’s no right or wrong way to approach this album.

It’s an amazing adventure. Consider yourself invited.

We could all make and wear a fascinator as they wore for the Royal Wedding. Just add ribbons, lace, flowers and whatever you have around to decorate a hair band. They seem pretty simple in construction but you could go all out and make them fancy and complicated.

National Post: The Rich History and Modern Rediscovery of the Fascinator

Fascinator is a recent designation but its ornamental essence is deeply rooted in 18th-century dress. British women paired the popular "Dutch" hairstyle with a topknot, also known as a pompom _{made up of ribbons, small feathers, butterflies and jewels and secured to the front or off to the side of the head. During the late 1700s, Marie Antoinette and other French ladies of influence had a strong desire for beauty, prestige and attention, igniting battles in creativity and flamboyancy. Hair-covered cushions stuffed with wool or horsehair, resembled tall egg-shaped towers and acted as foundations for fastened adornment. Flowers, lace, jewelled pins, fruit, garden scenes} anything and everything was considered fair game. (Clipped-on battleships and cannons to celebrate war victories? Why not?)

Revolutions and recessions slowed down the practice of extreme headdress, but moderate decorative pieces have always been present, with a shift towards varying types of formal hats in the early 20th century from large-brimmed Merry Widows to the sophisticated pillbox, before today's headgear bursting with clipped-on confidence took top spot on the hat rack.

Feathers have always been a chief decorative material in millinery. Ivan Sayers, fashion historian from Vancouver's Original Costume Museum Society shares that, "historically feathers were not only pretty, but were used to showcase allegiance to political parties and devotion to the royal family." Chances are ladies won't be using feathers to parade their pick for prime minister over the next few weeks, but this tradition is still exercised. Recently, Kate Middleton debuted a pheasant-plume-topped fascinator designed by Vivien Sheriff Millinery --- atop sat a badge representing the Royal Welch Fusiliers, a regiment within the Prince of Wales Division of the British Armed Forces.

How to Wear your Fascinator from an article in The Globe and Mail.

Fascinators should be worn on the side of your head, toward the front and on an angle. "Never in the centre," says Karyn Gingras, owner and designer at Lilliput Hats in Toronto's Little Italy. Ms. Gingras, whose handiwork will adorn heads in Westminster Abbey this Friday, says fascinators should generally perch slightly above the brow, though when netting is involved, it's okay to let it drape seductively over one eye.

Jezebel: How to Make your own Royal Wedding Fascinator

Philip Treacy - London, UK.

Fancy a Fascinator

Event Headwear\

You're looking after a child, not your own child. Halfway through the night the child wakes up and comes to find you. They had a bad dream. They can't get back to sleep cause there's a monster in their room. What do you tell the child and explain to them about monsters and being afraid? How do you get them back to sleep?

"Men write the history books," she added neutrally. "So naturally their take on it was that Morgan was this wicked terrible evil witch who destroyed Arthur because she could. But that's not true at all." Quote from "Derik's Bane" by Mary Janice Davidson.

I've thought about how women are portrayed in history, a history written by men from their point of view. Especially when it comes to anything from the Bible. Women don't even start out as something human in that book. To me it reads like science fiction in spots. We have discovered so many things that (to me at least) have proven the theory of evolution. Women were not created from a rib taken from a man. From there you should read everything else with the knowledge that the point of view is skewed.

Were the men who wrote about our history and our heritage anti-women (misogynistic even)? Some may have been. Most were just going with the common idea that women were not important. So, as women, we won't ever know about the women we could have admired in our past. Even those who do make it into recorded history are not given the same respect men were. They are judged in a different light. Rather than being seen as strong, they are wicked. Rather than being seen as sensual they are slutty. It goes on.

From L. Ron Hubbard:

"A society in which women are taught anything but the management of a family, the care of men, and the creation of the future generation is a society which is on its way out."

"The historian can peg the point where a society begins its sharpest decline at the instant when women begin to take part, on an equal footing with men, in political and business affairs, since this means that the men are decadent and the women are no longer women. This is not a sermon on the role or position of women; it is a statement of bald and basic fact."

The opinion formed about women carries on even into modern times, usually based on the older opinions passed down to each generation from historical texts, the Bible being one.

Think of an event or a woman in history and rewrite her story. Research some history to get the details and then consider how her story could be seen differently if it wasn't judged by old/ male standards.

The word for Wank Wednesday this week is: shine.

Man Slut Gets Wet

Water dripped from the end of his nose. Poor baby.

There he was, standing in a kiddie pool in the middle of the backyard, naked and feeling the chill even on such a humid day. I'd been hosing him with cold water while I watered the garden. My new innovation was to keep him blindfolded so he never knew when (or where) to expect the next soaking from the garden hose.

Blue balls are amusing; blue lips were a sign that the fun was over for him. Turning off the hose, I brought the big white towel and wrapped him up, rubbing it over his skin to take the chill off my poor little man slave.

"If you keep rubbing me that way something is going to pop out at you." He joked, his lips still shivering.

"Will I get three wishes?" I asked.

"Depends on what you wish for." He said.

Wrapping the towel around him, tucking his arms inside tightly, I took a moment to think. "Hmm, I wish for... real, home made hamburgers for dinner tonight."

He gave me a half bow. "That can be arranged to your satisfaction."

"Then I'd like to spend the evening reading the new book I started on the train this morning."

"Is that all you want to do this evening?" He asked.

"Mmm... I think so. Was there something else?"

"Well, I thought you might want to be nice to your man slave."

"True, I have taken a shine to him. He's been especially good lately."

"Good in what way?"

"Is he digging for compliments?" I laughed.

"No, no... He just wants to know what he did right so he can do it even better, and more often."

"I see. Well, he did let me laugh at him while he froze in the backyard today."

"So, he keeps you amused?"

"Yes." I pulled him out of the kiddie pool, careful he didn't slip while his arms were still tightly bound with the towel.

"Is that all?"

"He's a very good cook and a barista too. He makes me a great latte. He comes in handy when I don't want to carry all the groceries into the house. He's a good kisser too." I smiled, wickedly, pulling him down so I could let him kiss me.

The kiss was short, he was still too cold for me to let him stand there in the sliding door, half inside and half outside the house.

"He likes kissing you."

"Go to the bedroom man slave. You're still too cold. Luckily, I know how to warm you up, while being very nice to you."

"Yes Lady", he said. He turned, let the towel slip down his back and rest just under his butt cheeks as he walked away.

I laughed, "What a good little man slut you are!"