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 2,969 posts filed in Creative Fat Grrl (this is page 8 of 297).

SINGLE TAKEN BUILDING MY EMPIRE TANK TOP | Zazzle

Our favorite basic tank is simple, easy and sensible (helps keep your straps under wrap). These modest cotton tanks are semi-fitted, feminine and not too tight. Best of all, it’s easy on the wallet!

Size & Fit

  • Model is 5’8″ and wearing a small
  • Standard fit; runs true to size
  • High back and modest neck line, contoured silhouette with side seam
  • Available in S-2XL

Fabric & Care

  • 100% pre-shrunk 100% combed ring spun cotton
  • Fabric comes pre-shrunk
  • Bound rib trim neck and armhole, double-needle bottom hem
  • Machine wash cold, do not bleach, machine dry low, iron low
  • Imported

Like the design but want it on a different shirt style? Simply update on the “Style” section to the right. To learn more about our 7 different tank top styles, check out the Zazzle Tank Top Look Book!

SINGLE TAKEN BUILDING MY EMPIRE TANK TOP | Zazzle.

Leave Only Footprints and… Lace Street Art

She also leaves her art in abandoned buildings, like these. This could be an exception to the leave only footprints rule of exploring. Besides, these would harm nothing and they are not permanent.

Just because street art is a relatively modern development doesn’t mean that it should only feature modern artistic styles. NeSpoon, a street artist in Poland, creates beautiful pieces of street art that imitate traditional intricate lacework. Nespoon doesn’t limit herself to just spray paint and stencils, either – she also uses cement and actual crocheted lace.

Source: Polish Artist Covers City Streets In Intricate Lace Patterns | Bored Panda

Documenting the Decline of the Bingo Hall

Documenting the Decline of the Bingo Hall
From thriving social clubs to piles of rubble.

abandoned bingo
(Image credit: Forsaken Fotos via Flickr)

The rough-hewn simplicity and rustic charm of traditional land-based bingo halls have captivated the imagination of thousands of people throughout the decades. Indeed, brick-and-mortar bingo halls are teeming with vibrant characters and interesting personalities that bring life to a time-honored establishment. So it’s not too surprising to learn that a few talented photographers have devoted their time and energies to document the humanity inside these old-school bingo halls. Washington resident Andrew Miksys was exposed to bingo at an early age. His father published the daily Bingo Today newspaper, which Miksys then delivered to bingo halls and convenience stores across Seattle. Miksys eventually toured America’s bingo halls to present a respectful look into the communal spirit that’s part of a bingo hall’s character.

There’s even more proof that the time-honored game is a veritable treasure trove of expressive portraits. German photographer Michael Hess is a structural engineer by training and a self-taught photographer by choice. Currently residing in London, Hess lived near a bingo hall in Southampton in 2005 and always wondered what happened inside. One fateful game in that same bingo hall was all it took to motivate Hess to travel to almost 70 bingo halls in the UK for the next four years. The result was Bingo and Social Club, a good-natured and graciously rare peek into the enigmatic society of bingo halls.

However, bingo halls are believed to be not long for this world, with many different bingo halls now closing all over the world. The classic game has found its new home online, where various companies have begun to launch online bingo portals which are much more convenient and easy to play. The Virtue Fusion software that runs the games on Betfair Bingo also allow for a variety of themed games to be held simultaneously, and land-based bingo halls just cannot keep up. As such, many bingo halls have shut down, their doors closing as though to keep their memories nestled within.

While they’re no longer visited by the average bingo player, these abandoned bingo halls have made for some truly evocative images, inspiring wayward photographers with the stories they seem to tell. Web Urbanist has even come out with a collection of haunting photographs of abandoned bingo halls called “Punched Cards”. The selection of photos has everything from dilapidated signage to the remains of old bingo cards and the remains of old structures that have now been reduced to rubble, and they make one think about all the history and memories that have been made in these places. Where people once crowded and fought to shout, “BINGO!”, there lies nothing but shambles and old signs. But often, these are exactly what the urban photographer is looking for.

Mother and Me

My Mother and I have a relationship like this. Not to the point where we are fighting or angry or not talking. We live in the same house, again. I didn’t get luck and find or create a family of my own. My husband decided he didn’t want to be married after our first year of marriage. So I ended up moving back with my family again. Once my Dad died it was my Mom and I. She goes down to the US over winter so I have the house to myself half a year. It’s all so different then. As much as I do like my Mother she takes over my life and I seem to just let her. I feel like I just give in and coast along the half year she is here. Then, the other half I spend feeling like myself again and trying to get some where, until she is back again. It’s funny cause she has changed and tries to support me these days. But she still discourages me from trying anything, even though she will later say how good I am at… whatever it is. Its frustrating. I’m going to be 50 in a few more years. Lately I feel I have been slowly giving up. Anyway, TMI by far. I didn’t think anyone else actually felt the same way about their Mother or had the same growing up situation with their parents. I don’t feel quite so guilty after reading your post.

Urgh…

Today’s title is a sound, not an actual word.

I am tired and I don’t know why. True I took a book to bed with me last night and read about 150 pages before I finally turned out the light. But, I also slept in. That should equal out, right?

But, I started taking medication for depression and OCD (which is short for obsession, really). I didn’t really think I had any abnormal hang ups until I started looking at the things I do a bit closer. I do have a lot of focus for details, especially once something catches my interest. I do get fussy about the smallest things, having them right. Not that I’m a tidy neat freak. Apparently though, being a neat freak is not actually required. Being a hoarder is the other side of the bucket.

Don’t get pictures of hoarders you see on TV. I’m not that extreme. I keep it to one room, mostly. I don’t bring food around here, other than coffee and the occasional snack which I am careful about. I don’t have mice and the only bugs are those attracted to my hoard of paper, not crumbs of food. So, I’m not a disaster of a hoarder. Just a hoarder light. I did get quite a bit of it cleaned up too but it seems to be creeping back. Anyway, that’s a story for another day.

I think the medicine I’m taking is making me tired. That is one of the side effects but I thought by now (over the first month of taking them) Id’ be past that. The tired comes over me all of a sudden. If you have ever taken an allergy pill (anti-histamine) you will know what that’s like. One minute you are fine the next you can’t possibly seem to keep your eyes open and your body wants to melt down and rest on the floor (or something softer if you can pull yourself together long enough). Maybe not everyone reacts to allergy pills that way. I find even the non-drowsy pills get me.

I’m mostly back to working on my sites again. Still getting sucked into little details rather than starting in on the bigger jobs like all those photographs for the exploration which need to be posted to Flickr (no posts since 2013!) and now my own urban exploration site, Wrecky Rat Bird. I also want to find a simple way to watermark my photos. This gets complicated because I don’t want to watermark my originals, just a web copy. Also, I have a lot of photos on Flickr but my originals from years past are burned on CDs and I’m not sure where they are in the clutter. Another thing, I found one of my saved CD’s but it was broken in half. Discouraging. So I guess that is all part of why I keep putting off the big job of posting my photos. Instead I’m fluffing around with plugins which I could really not bother with compared to the actual photo content which I do need.

There won’t be an image with this post. I’m mostly writing to keep myself awake and it seems to be working. So far. But, I need to get more done than this today. I should have gone out to the grocery store but I put that off for another day. I did the same thing yesterday. Urgh and bleh! There are days like that.

Rain Slicked Urban Photography

photos

From NetDost: PAINTERLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF RAINY DAYS BY EDWARD GORDEEV

Russian photographer Edward Gordeev takes beautiful photographs of city streets and people during rain that looks like painting. Most of the photographs have been taken at night with all the lighting on the streets…

Hard to believe these are photographs. I love a rainy day and rain, overcast days are great for taking photographs, especially for the abandoned and derelict places. The camera captures more light and shadow when there is less light but still enough light to see everything in sharp, crispy clarity. Rainy days are great for photographing ruins.

I found this post on NetDost and even though it isn’t exactly about urban exploration it is about photography and I sincerely love the photos and want to remember them. Not sure it’s the best technique for rural/ urban ruins when I want to see every detail, but they do have the sad and mysterious atmosphere just right.

At the end of the post a link was given as a source for the photographer, but I’m not sure it is a direct link versus a photo sharing site in Russia.

Women and Friendly Fire

I was watching a US TV show, Bones. The episode was about war heros, men in the war and the afterwards, the after care and how they are not understood or respected for what they went through.

My mind went to women who have been through an attack or stalking and other violence and victimization. We aren’t given much respect, understanding either.

Also, we go through it all alone. We are alone when attacked, no team has our backs, no group of soldiers. Mostly by our own choice because we don’t feel chatty about it all either. So many of the same emotions but so much difference in how people react and how women are misunderstood, blamed and treated afterwards.

Women don’t think to be proud of having survived being preyed on the way soldiers are told to be proud they served their country.

The question is – what do women serve , other than being a survivor, what is there for them to be proud of? Should we think we serve men by being abused? Is that what we can be proud of, like a soldier?

Ironic that the TV show I was watching ended up being about the death and cover up of a soldier killed by friendly fire. Is that how women should look at it? Attack or death by friendly fire? It doesn’t seem friendly to me.