Monday morning random

* I will have to do a "ponies in dresses" post soon - I finished Maud's dress (though I may re-hem the skirt as it didn't come out as symmetrical as I'd like) and also, playing around, I wrapped one of the vintage hankies I've collected around Coco and realized that even with no sewing, it makes a cute little dress. (I might sew a snap or something on the two corners I am using as "ties" for the front - or a couple short lengths of ribbon so I can tie it closed. Right now I just have the ends tucked in and that won't stay on its own).

Ponies are not technically "naked" when they are naked so you don't have to worry about coverage as much as you would with a human doll (Also the ponies are not anatomical, so there are no udders to worry about on the mares*) and also, being a four-footed creature, skirts need to be such that their legs are free to walk - so the "skirt" is really more like a "cape that covers the back flanks"

(* Interesting idea: in a sentient-horse society, would rules of propriety and morality be similar to that of many human societies, as in "baby making parts get covered up**"? Or would they have a very different concept of modesty and morality?)

(**And yet, in some ways, baby-making parts - or at least, baby-FEEDING parts (sorry) get flaunted in ways designed to be titillating. At least in certain social occasions.So I wonder, in said sentient-horse society, at the horse equivalent of the academy awards, would almost-udder-baring outfits be the norm?)

* I didn't watch the big awards show last night. I rarely watch movies in the theater, and even rarely watch the recent "big" movies once they come out on dvd. And, I don't know, there was a "news" story this week about how the actresses were "struggling" to find the "perfect" dress, and I thought, their struggles are not like my struggles.*

(*Of course I have never been accused of being fashionable and if I were going to a big "do" and had sufficient lead-time, I'd probably MAKE my own dress. Which is probably a pretty, what's the phrase sometimes used? Non-U? thing to do.)


Seriously, some days I wish finding the "perfect" dress for a big "do" was the biggest concern I had. (I tend to settle pretty easily as long as there are some choices in my size and I don't have to wear Spanx or something like that under it.)

* It's Leap Day. Eh, meh, another work day. If I ran the circus, maybe Leap Day would be a holiday - and a real holiday, not one of those holidays where there's no mail and the banks are closed but most everyone else has to work like normal and the day is essentially indistinguishable from any other.

Equestria Daily has declared this "Discord Day" (I guess like Opposite Day?). That makes me twitch slightly because so far 2016 has felt more like "Discord Year."

Also, we don't need more discord (small d. I know there are enough fans of the character - big D Discord - that they would say more of him was needed). It seems that discord is one thing we are not in danger of running out of. Maybe Leap Day should instead be a day to strive to be kinder to other people, or at least bite off the snarky thing you were going to say to someone?

I know that also supposedly this was the day (in years past, when gender roles were stricter) that women were "allowed" to propose marriage to men - the whole Sadie Hawkins thing. (They occasionally had Sadie Hawkins dances at my high school but the whole idea didn't work that great because by the time I was in high school things had evened out to the point where a woman asking a man out wasn't that big of a deal. And anyway, I never got up the courage to ask anyone, so)


* One thing I noticed out and about this weekend. I stopped at JoAnn's just briefly (had a coupon, didn't use it, didn't really find anything). I went and looked at their big craft-book wall and was struck by how most of the actual CRAFT books have been replaced by coloring-books-for-adults. This trend is finally hitting big here, I guess.

I admit, it makes me slightly sad that the craft store - where I go to feed my need for knitting and quilting stuff - has pushed that aside in favor of something you can find literally anywhere now. I don't know whether this is:

a. Cynical thought: These books are cheaper to produce than knitting or quilting books (no technical editing required, and perhaps in some cases, the designers come cheaper than knitting or quilting designers) and also the books get "used up" so more will be sold

or

b. Sad thought: No one has any time or energy to do ANYTHING craft-related any more, so people are just giving up and going, "Meh, I'll color in my free time."

I admit it: I bought the Tula Pink book a while back but have only colored part of one page on it. Because the whole time I was coloring, my brain was going, "You'd find knitting or handquilting equally relaxing and then you'd actually have something useful when you were done." I didn't find coloring "fed my soul" the way a lot of people said it did for them. I'd rather handquilt.

I dunno. I would like to be able to at least look at craft books before deciding to buy them (so often, the new books on Amazon or somewhere are such a pig in a poke - I order a book of sock patterns, and it turns out that, ugh, they are all toe-up with that hourglass heel that doesn't fit me. Or I order a quilt book and it turns out it needs weird precut packages and you need about five of the precut packages to do anything, or it requires the use of a "weird" cutting tool I don't have). But I guess the people have spoken, and coloring books it is, even at the craft stores. (Sigh).

Well, at least I can go to Whitesboro for real craft stores (as long as THOSE last, my inner cynic says)

I wonder what happens when the coloring-book trend fades? (as it will; all trends do).