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Chrisjen Avasarala, being the boss she is.

"My life has become a single, ongoing revelation that I haven't been cynical enough."

Do yourself a favor and check out Swanson's Fabrics! The physical location is in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, USA, but the online shop will ship to you!

I can't remember who first told me about Swanson's, but they're a textile thrift shop that collects and repurposes donations of unused sewing supplies. Their physical location, The Stash House, offers community sewing resources and a studio. For non-locals (such as myself), their online shop offers fabrics, patterns, and notions. The shop restocks on Thursdays, and they have a constantly-rotating collection of items. If you like thrifting secondhand craft materials, Swanson's is for you!

Via their official "about" page:

Swanson’s Fabrics and notions are gifts from retired sewing stashes. They are the fabrics and supplies that sewers and fiber-artists naturally accumulate. I had a suspicion that the reason we all collect so much is that we didn’t have a place “good enough” to take it. So I made the place. Turns out I was right, and thanks to my community (and yours) of makers and crafters, I can resell these fine materials at a low, approachable cost. ALL FABRICS ARE $5.00/yd, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE MADE OF. REALLY. I MEAN IT. I KNOW. UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE! As we come to grips with the climate crisis, interrupted supply lines, and our dependency on slave-labor in far away countries to produce our cotton and fiber goods, we need another way to approach the fabrics in our lives. We have a massive resource of textile goods in our country and it is time to tap into it. Our attics, basements, thrift-store donation bins, and dumpsters are brimming with discarded fabrics. It is time to start making and trading for the things we need, and stop buying so much new stuff we don’t. We need to see ourselves as trash-rich. Customers at Swanson’s can pay for goods and services with goods and services. I accept trade of sewing and fiber supplies/materials, and trade for help in the shop. I hope to inspire you to make your own clothes, to mend the ones you have, to shop second-hand and alter things to your taste. There is a lot of power in dressing yourself. Custom is king, and you can’t have a revolution in your master’s clothes…. ❤️💪🏻 -Kathryn

The CovidSafeCosplay blog and its admin are unaffiliated with Swanson's Fabrics, and are simply sharing the resource.

My first romcom, Chef's Kiss, is about a pastry chef at a food magazine falling for her kitchen manager, Ray, who comes out at work as nonbinary. It's a slow burn for foodies.

The sequel, Chef's Choice, is about Luna and JP fake dating while trying to win an inheritance-based cooking challenge. It's T4T and features a few nonbinary side characters, Ray included.

And then there's Triple Sec, a polyamorous romcom about a bartender getting picked up by a queer couple. One of the couple, Kade, is nonbinary.

HR 7661 is not dead. But thanks to your ongoing efforts, it is definitely losing steam. Your advocacy matters! The clear evidence is that the bill’s sponsors are shifting from promoting HR 7661 to instead promoting a new bill, HR 2617. HR 2617, the so-called “Say No to Indoctrination Act,” was introduced earlier this month by Representative Burgess Owens of Utah—one of the co-sponsors of HR 7661. This bill would forbid educators from teaching “concepts related to gender ideology,” with the aims of “defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the Federal Government.” As we have seen time and again, any whiff of gender essentialism in education inevitably leads to book bans. What we’re asking you to do now: Call your House Representative and tell them you oppose both HR 7661 and HR 2617. If your Representative is a Democrat on the House Education & Workforce Committee, specifically ask that they show up at the June 10th hearing ready to defend our students’ and educators’ access to books with a full spectrum of gender identities. And yes, it’s not a coincidence that this vote is scheduled to take place during National Pride Month. Conservatives apparently enjoy using that month in particular to speak out against LGBTQ+ people and issues.

HR 7661 was “reported amended” by the Committee on Education and Workforce and placed on the Union Calendar on Thursday, July 2nd—right before a ten day break. Being placed on the “Union Calendar” means a bill has been favorably recommended out of a House committee and is now catalogued, making it officially eligible for full floor consideration.

Just because a measure is listed on a congressional calendar does not guarantee that it will be considered on the House floor on a certain date—or at all. But the timing of this move—right before the 4th of July holiday, with a short two working weeks before the August recess to potentially hear it and vote on it—is highly suspicious. It may be an indication that HR 7661’s advocates are hoping to slip it in under the radar.

We can’t let that happen.

1) Call your representative and tell them to vote NO on HR 7661

2) Talk to your rep in person if they’re home and keeping office hours

3) Share our Vote No on HR 7661 social media images

4) Print, post, and share our one-sheet that explains HR 7661

5) Share our HR 7661 Sponsor Candidate Scorecards on social media