Creative Fat Grrl

Creative Fat Grrl was a name I invented for myself when I wrote a web column for Lockergnome. I was looking for something that felt like me, not one of the bright, trendy and excitable young people who create energetic YouTube video posts on the side. It was something I could live up to without feeling left out. I kept it going for a couple of years. The name still works for creative arts sort of posts. Most of the posts in this category will be written for that column or others.

There are 2,542 posts filed in Creative Fat Grrl (this is page 30 of 424).

Curating by Colour

I’ve seen a few people using this idea. I find them on Tumblr most of the time. I like it. It’s eye catching, attention getting and sensual wtih real visual appeal.

Curating by Color, from the Etsy blog.

I have an uncontrollable obsession with trawling Etsy. My Favorites are updated daily with stunning photography, emerging artists, and infant cuteness that makes me giddy. I can’t help but curate mini-collections to inspire a seasonal palette or new ideas for my next project.

Blogger is Annoying

I have turned off word verification sevearl times but no matter how many times I save the setting as ‘off’ it comes right back on again when I go back to check. I may move this blog over to WordPress.com today. I really do HATE word verification and don’t expect anyone else to use it when I don’t want to be stuck with it either.

eBooks Have No Feelings

It’s a shame they don’t still make books with hard covers, embossed titles, tissue thin pages between full colour illustrations, fore-edge painting. Those books had texture, they were touchable. New books don’t have that quality and ebooks have none at all.

It seems we always lose something sensual in a real, physical way when we move ahead with new technology. Will everything eventually be hands-off, untouchable in the future? The less people touch things the more it becomes something unusual, scary, even taboo eventually. Think not? What about all those people who won’t wash their hands any more because they’re afraid of germs? They don’t want to touch the taps, the soap, the towel to dry your hands…

I’m just waiting to see someone wearing latex gloves to the bookstore.

Are you Afraid of the City?

I read an email list for Pagans in small towns. This is something I wrote for a discussion about agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces and large crowds, etc. The talk turned to the dangers of crowds and cities. I always get annoyed about misplaced attitudes about cities. I guess you can’t really take the city out of the girl, even when she moves far out into the small town/ rural city kind of area.

Large cities and large crowds are not that big a deal. Maybe some of you are giving yourself a phobia or hang ups. I live in a small city, Barrie, in Ontario. It is funny to me to hear people talk about Toronto (the city I grew up in) as if it were some big, bad place of sin and evil. Where everyone is in danger of being attacked at any moment. I’ve had people tell me all kinds of stuff they think about Toronto, how they will never go there… Then, I will be in a small town and people will tell me how dangerous it is to live here, in Barrie. There are too many people, it’s too big, there are street people and drunks coming out of the bar on main street…. Well, ironically, I’ve seen drunks coming out of bars in any town that has a bar. We had a car stolen once, in a small town – never in the city.

People build themselves up to be afraid. They sound weird to me. I still go downtown to Toronto and have a good walk around. It is not a big deal, I’ve never had a problem. I live in Barrie, I take the bus even! I walk right by the homeless street people. I’m not stupid and all Miss Sunshine about it, but I’m not living in terror either.

I’m not meaning to offend anyone. But, it sounds like you are painting yourself into a corner. People are about the same in a city or a small town. It’s more about how you see things versus where you are. We tend to find what we are looking for.