45 Boxes of Books

Dress

c. 1900-1909

made by Mde Parnentier

I am working on a collection of dragons inspired by the colors of many of the flags that represent different identities. In addition to this, I have put together a Pride Fundraiser G!veaway to hopefully benefit many different organizations who provide a variety of resources to the LGBTQIA+ community as well as a few direct mutual aid funds.

Pictured below is the dragon you will receive! Their colors are based on the original Pride flag, created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker. 💜

How to enter:

• Donate to one of the organizations or campaigns listed below. Every $5 donation increment earns you one entry slot into the drawing for the Pride Dragon.

• Screenshot your donation confirmation page and submit it to the GoogleDoc at the end of this post.

• Drawing will take place on June 21st and the winner will be contacted privately. Open to those in the U.S. only. I will cover shipping costs. Please beware of potential scams. I will never ask for anything but your shipping address if you win.

MN Transgender Health Coalition

OutFrontMN

The Trevor Project

PFLAG

Chelsey’s GoFundMe

Cinder’s GoFundMe

Google Form to submit entries

The gold ribbon was a GOOD CHOICE it literally sparkles in the sunlight!!

Lightning Bait

HERMES: DA FUNNY ONE

ZEUS: DA LIGHTNING (NOTE: THOUGHT HE WAS NORDIC, FATHER OF THOR)

POSEIDON: DA SEA ONE

HEPHAESTUS: DA FIRE/FORGING/STEEL ONE

APHRODITE: DA HOT ONE

KRATOS: GOD OF WAR

HADES: DA HELL ONE. ROGUE LIKE

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

Pretty soon after the resort responded: their survey bot wrote out a garbled summary of her feedback with thanks sprinkled throughout.

My mom was pissed. Her voice shook as she told me how disrespected she felt. How few people actually fill out those surveys, and how she took the time to think hard about hers. The gen-AI bot they used to make it sound like a real person had read her feedback - it was an insult to her. Everyone knows that any company bigger than ten people can't provide that kind of personalized service. The bot wasn't fooling anyone.

One year ago today I made my first piece of lace! I had started seeing videos of lacemaking on tiktok and was amazed because I had never seen it before, and didn't understand how it worked. I decided to just watch one video so I could understand what was happening. But after watching the video, it just clicked in my head and I was like I could do that. I went to a thrift shop and bought a box of pins and a huge spool of mystery thread (i think it is a cotton or linen something, still haven't been able to identify it for sure), and got to work.

My first attempt at a setup was using a foam yoga mat as a bolster pillow

but that did not work for me 😂 I couldn't control the bobbins and it was just too big to be manageable. so instead i switched to the laptop case and thus my first two pieces of lace were made

I then started making my way through the beginner torchon patterns from Jo Edkin's Online Lace School.

In November, I moved from Switzerland where I had been attending grad school back home to the US and updated my lace pillow from a laptop case to a folded piece of felt and got my hands on a few different lace books (the three my library had lol) to start trying out some new things (1, 2,3)

For Christmas, I received a lace pillow and some bobbins and was surprised at how much I improved just with the right equipment

In April I did a bunch of research and got to work making myself a Honiton lace pillow. I loved the process of making it and definitely want to make more in the future.

I joined my local lace group and have attended some events and gotten to meet a lot of great people already and hope that I can start attending more events soon! I'm also hoping to maybe start demonstrating at events later this year and share my love for lace with more people.

What a difference a year makes

Later in the class we had to do a promo for a book for our theoretical students and I picked the first Tiffany Aching book (a novel connected to the witches listed above). The professor approved and then told me how lovely the gender elements I mentioned were and how empowering the story sounded, and then ended with a reminder about this is why she insists on gendered recommendations.

Specifically,

"Can you really expect a boy to read a book by a woman like Terri Pratchett?"