Chloë Miriam

Disability, Work and Politics - my reply to discussions on work w/o disabled voices

I read this interesting article on Buzzfeed  “The 1970s Feminist Who Warned Against Leaning In” promoting a reissue of Sheila Rowbotham’s book ‘Woman’s Consciousness, Man’s World’.

Whilst I found it interesting with some excellent points made I couldn’t help but feel the lack of any discussion about disability was a glaring omission. The issue of work, what is work and who is valued for working…

Time To Talk - not always a good idea, some things to think about

Content note: mental health, self harm, suicide

Today is yet another well meaning but a bit too cosy to be realistic mental health initiative, #timetotalk. It is admirable yet it doesn’t quite get across how hard talking is. It’s not just stigma, it’s the vulnerability. It’s terrifying to talk about mental health sometimes, to open up and to admit you can’t cope, that you hate yourself, that you…

Thoughts on being ill in 21st century Britain

‘Passing’ as not disabled & all the conflicting emotions it brings

Society has such a narrow view if disability I’ve found it hard to identify as disabled, despite the fact I live with two chronic conditions that affect my ability to live my life ‘normally’ which fits the definition of disability used in UK law. I feel trapped sometimes.

I have been insulted for calling myself disabled as I am…

Right now I'm working on my freelance writing & design portfolio website thing and wanted to embed a blog into it, and thought my tumblr was the best bet. After much frustrating googling coming up with outdated tutorials I found this hand bit of code that you just cut and paste, so thought I'd share it. It's really that easy! 

Just cut and past this on your site where you want your tumblr to show up:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://yourname.tumblr.com/js"></script>

However this does just throw out a very simple, unstyled list which can be a bit ugly. I found a detailed guide here: http://janzheng.com/2013/06/tumblr_integration.html

Embed.ly also has some easy third party options. 

Because it's #NationalPoetryDay, here are some of my poems I'm posting for the first time. Scary.

Because it’s National Poetry Day 2014, I thought I’d break my blogging silence by posting some of my poetry. And by ‘poetry’ I mean a stream of consciousness of rage and emotion rarely fitting into any neat style, bad spelling and all, just raw words spurting out. So three little poem like creatures:

The Flood

It comes up from nowhere Wells up breaches all my defences Deluge inundation I’m…

New blog - 'Anger' why it's a good thing

I am angry, as I am when the world just gets too much, when all the oppressive shit just seems never ending and you feel hopeless and you can’t quite formulate anything beyond a sort of screaming frustration.

I’d say I’m pretty much apoplectic right now. So I’d like to talk about anger and how I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

Anger is not a bad thing. Anger is a valid emotion. Anger is a response…

I've been frustrated recently by mainstream feminism's (and wider social justice stuff) lack of inclusion of disabled women and lack of dialogue about disability issues and how everything is always solved with some pathetic token gesture - i.e a ramp. In response I have penned a small dramatic set piece exploring the issues, a portmanteau of various issues du jour;  I call it 'How I Met Your Ramp'

disabled person: I'm not sure your movement listens to me or reflects my concerns, I'm not interested in knickers I'd rather talk about benefit cuts to be honest. I don't find you very accessible.

abled person:  BUT WE HAVE A RAMP. 

disabled person: It's not about a ramp, it's a lot more complex than physical access needs, I'd like to have a conversation about disability

abled person: WE HAVE A RAMP, HAVE YOU SEEN OUR RAMP? WE HAVE A RAMP! You can't call me prejudiced that's mean I have a friend who's differently abled, have you met my ramp? why are you so angry thats not fair, I met a ramp once! Can't we talk about knickers instead? knickers are important! 

disabled person: You're not listening to me. Look can you just listen? just for five minutes?

abled person: did you say something? HAVE I SHOWN YOU OUR RAMP? HAVE I SHOWN THIS PICTURE OF A SMILING CHILD ON MY RAMP WITH AN INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE? RAMP RAMP RAMP. 

disabled person: Ok I've tried, that's it, I'm cutting ties, I no longer feel I can be in your 'movement'. It's like talking to a brick wall. I'm out, bye, thanks for nothing. 

abled person: OMG WHY ARE YOU MEAN? WE'D LISTEN IF YOU TALKED TO US! 

disabled person - lashes out in frustration: oh fuck off!

For those not in the know, nail foils are like rub on transfers for your nails. They come in every colour and pattern under the sun and can be used to cover full nails or as an accent or embellishment. Nail Polish Queen’s has an in-depth guide to the intricacies of applying nail foils here. They are quite different to the plastic wraps I’d used before, not as easy really  but they are cheaper, easier to create your own designs and effects with plus they remind me of primary school in all it’s PVA glue and holographic foil paper collage glory.

Nail Foils can create some stunning effects but they are definitely trickier than polish! Mine look good but once you get close up you can see bit where the foil hasn’t quite taken or ridges from my cack handed and impatient application, especially on my right hand.  Though I am determined to keep practing as it’s opened up a whole new world of nails art and due to the wonders of getting a cheap job lot on ebay I have quite a few foils to keep me going! I’m currently enamoured with the gradient holographic effect I’ve gone for here using some of the gradient foil I got in my ebay job lot.

We have a winner! - my nail polish giveaway has ended thanks to everyone who entered!

My first blog giveaway has ended and we have a winner -

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to everyone who entered and don’t forget you can buy my nail polish on my etsy shop

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately, but I shall be back soon!

  Thank you once again for all your support!

Why I Hate Cupcakes

Yes you read that right, I hate cupcakes. Don’t get me wrong I love cake, in fact one reason I hate cupcakes so much is because I love cake. So why do I hate cupcakes? Read on…

Disappointment in Cake Form

Why I Hate Cupcakes; Cupcakes are a metaphor for all that is wrong with the world

Cupcakes are all too often sad, pathetic, saccharine excuses for cake; full of pomp and circumstance designed to…

Friday Fright - Creature Feature: Nosferatu

It’s time for another Friday Fright, I missed the last one due to the terror of wisdom teeth but I am back for this week’s  with  theme of ‘Creature Feature – who scares you the most?”

I must admit I’m a bit stumped for this one. I just don’t seem to have seen many creature feature films, or I have a terrible memory (both probably). Nothing much stands out as a creepy monster to end all creepy…

#GIVEAWAY on my blog win a set of FOUR of my Nail Polishes #nails #indiepolish #bbloggers #fblbloggers

To celebrate the launch of my  Vanity Undone Indie Polish store on Esty I am giving away a set of my first collection – thats four full size 10ml nail polishes!

You will Get

‘Stood on Gold’  - a deep golden bronze full of fine holographic gold glitter dust and large hexagonal copper glitters

‘Long Hot Summer Night’ – a deep royal blue speckled with translucent stars and fine holographic glitters