Arizona Immigration Law

What to write? I must write something, I feel a responsibility to my vast readership. (snicker, snicker)
My blog looks at me with reproachment. Actually, I just heard that pronounced on the radio as reh prozh mon. Ooh, I like that!
Like a sad puppy, the blog says, "Play with me, pay me attention, or I will have to look at you with reh prozh mon! Apparently, eet ees a leetle French Poodle poopy!

On Arizona's Immigration Bill:
While listening to NPR today, Neal Conan asked reporter Peter O'Dowd the question, "has there been any suggestions as to how police are supposed to recognize an illegal immigrant?"

HERE'S THE GOOD PART!

Honest to Goodness, he answered, "Let's say you are pulled over for a speeding ticket, just having brown skin, that wouldn't warrant your showing proof of citizenship(whatever that might be)
BUT
if you're pulled over for a speeding ticket and you're in a car with 5 other brown skinned people, near the border, and there are OTHER circumstances involved, then it would be okay to ask for *proof of citizenship."

OKAY, here's what I want to know.
What exactly might these OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES be...?
Perhaps Norteño music playing? A Virgin of Guadalupe on the dash? Maybe on their way to a landscaping or slaughterhouse job?

COME ON PEOPLE! How can it not lead to profiling?


comments? Let the reh prozh mon begin.

Sewing My Way Through the Seventies

I started sewing in the 7th grade when I took a sewing class in Jr. High. I remember my first attempt was a simple, straight, sleeveless sheath with an assortment of removable, interchangeable collars. I chose a pink flowered cotton for the dress and a white pique' for the collar. It turned out great and I was on my way!

Once I was in High School, I was sewing regularly and much of my wardrobe, save plaid, wool skirts and angora sweaters, was homemade. That was back in the day of girls being required to wear dresses to school. I wore dresses that were, of course being the 70's, quite short, until the later 70's when a longer skirt caqme into style. Panty hose, chunky, high heeled shoes, platform sandals or boots completed the outfits. Well, those and Indian silver and turquoise jewlery, hoop earrings and pieces from 1928 jewelry. My best friends also sewed, none of us ever took a homemaking class in high school, it was more a crafty, artistic thing.

My favorite patterns were Butterick. they carried my favorite designers Jane Tise and Betsey Johnson. Can you believe Betsey Johnson, with her platinum-blond, chunky pageboy is still going strong today, doing cartwheels on the catwalk at the end of her couture shows!

When I came across these images, they transported me straight to the occasions and settings
in which I wore them! It was a very powerful thing, a time machine. Lots of wonderful memories!

This jumper was a favorite I made the year

I interned 3rd grade, 1978.
Wearing it, I felt every bit a teacher!

I sewed
this up for
Diana Hicken's
wedding at the Wayfarer's
Chapel in Palos Verde, Calif. It was GORGEOUS and sexy and
looked very much like the short
version on the left.

Navy calico with red flowers, reversible navy corduroy/red calico vest.
Gosh, I still love that look! I wore tall, high-heeled boots with it. I loved the weight of the yards of fabric in the skirt. Back in the day, I was thin and could pull-off these styles.



I must thank my mom for being a seamstress, sewing me many a Halloween costume, summer outfit and a beautifully detailed yellow floral, halter style prom dress, with short yellow satin bolero jacket, that still hangs in my closet today. It's a beautiful example of
everything I love about 1970's fashion.

"Thank you, India"

A Popular Blogger recently got hair extensions.
Posting about the experience she said, "Thank you, India". I'm assuming she is not thanking a stylist named India, but rather referring to the origin of the extensions.
I have never been a fan of hair extensions. I think they are a conspicuous expression of vanity. If you want long hair, grow it out! That is, unless you are a starlet or a supermodel or a rock-star. In her defense, Popular Blogger is an accident victim with resultant hair issues.
"Thank you, India" got me thinking about the hair industry. Where do all of those hairs, millions and billions of strands, come from? Whose head did that hair, now weaved and glued to your head, once live on ?

Every day, tens of thousands of Hindus make religious pilgrimages to temples.

There they pray and give thanks for their blessings. Desiring to demonstrate their devotion, they make a sacrifice to the goodness of their Gods. Many have no money to offer the gods; the most valuable thing they can give is their hair or the hair of their children.

At the temples, barbers are lined up 24 hours a day, wetting their razors and shaving the heads of visiting pilgrims.

With the popularity of hair extensions in the Western world, temples found they could sell the sacrificed hair to middle men in the hair extension industry for $200 to $300 a kilogram.

After sale, the hair is washed, brushed and combed by hand at a factory in Bangalore, before being shipped to factories where the color is removed and it is dyed a range of fashion colors. Now its value has jumped to $500 a kilogram, approximately 2.2 lbs. It is then sent to hair salons in more than 50 countries across the Western world, where women pay as much as $4,000 dollars for a longer, thicker, sexier head of hair.

The Indian women are able to make a sacrifice to their Gods, the temples make money, which they claim they use to support pilgrims and community programs, and the hair industry in the West has a new product to work with and make customers happy.

Why does this whole process bother me?

While the pilgrims might not feel exploited, there's no question that their hair is now a valuable commodity, and the hair extension industry is making some people very rich.

To me, it's like someone hanging out by the sacrificial altar, taking the remains and then selling fresh, lamb gyros.

Poor women in many areas, such as Burma, Spain, Eastern Europe and even the U.S., are selling their hair. The operative word being SELLING. The Indian women seem to me, to be exploited.

Read the highlighted links and tell me: What do YOU think?

I welcome all opinions!

People Think I'm Nice...But, often, I am not.

I know I'm a few weeks late on this one but does anyone remember what Gaborey Sidibe wore to the Oscars? Stacy and Clinton where were you when she needed you!?



As a "big girl" myself, I was horrified by that dress! There were so many things wrong with it. They got a couple of things right, but for the most part, sooo wrong.
I'll give you the good news first:
The gathered fabric in front nicely hides the tummy and the diagonal line across the bodice is always flattering.
The bad news is:
The dress is too long! Whomever she paid to make it for her should have had her wear the shoes to be worn the night of the event to ensure the length was right! 4 inches of fabric puddled at your feet does not elongate your look.
I'm sorry, but when you have big ol' arms like that, please cover them with a sleeve. I know where-of I speak! My upper arms haven't seen the light of day for some time now! It would have looked so much more flattering with a sleeve, even just to the elbow.
"Off the shoulder" needs pronounced shoulders to look good. Bring the sleeve up over the crest of her shoulders for a wide sweetheart neckline and drop the neckline a little.
That lace looked like something you'd pick up at Michaels. That aside, take off the piece under her left boob and the one near it running horizontally. Line them up with the others sweeping diagonally across the dress and lower the large lace motif on the right a little lower on the hip.
It's true! Black is slenderizing! Wear black!

These sleeves are great! I think she was a little thinner here, but the lower neckline and sleeves make all the difference.
Forgive my horrible photoshop skills, or lack there of, but I think this is much nicer! Picture it in black.

AND.... Wardrobe malfunction my butt!! Her STRAP broke?? Honey, that "strap" is 5" wide! That is a shoulder seam. What a cheap publicity stunt. She announced she was leaving her T.V. show a few days later...I'm embarassed for her .