When I say new corset, I mean a smaller one! I emailed my local corseteire, and found out that the corset I was wearing was two sizes too big, so I am now in a 20. Yet to break it in because of torn stitches on the loop side of the busk.
(will upload a photo)
So I stitched it back up as neatly as I could (I'm no expert) and will start seasoning it tomorrow. Wish me luck! I'm excited to gain that coveted hourglass figure of the Victorian era.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Friday, July 24, 2015
My first corset - two days of seasoning
Helloooo!
So I generally have a love for all things Victorian - well the social side and fashion to be exact. It would have been the most beautiful period to be born into, with those gorgeous dresses and lovely figures. As a result I have an interest in corsetry, and after watching Madame Bovary (click here for link - Ezra Millar is so gorgeous...) I went a little overboard in my interest and ended up buying a $120 24" short underbust corset.
The site I went to is based in Auckland, New Zealand (corseterie.co.nz) where a lovely lady Jill makes all the corsets they stock. I emailed her with my waist size (27") and she emailed me back with a recommendation. My corset is polyester and cotton, with waist tape, a few spiral steel bones (haven't counted them yet) with a solid busk and flat steel bones for the lacing.
The first wear was surprisingly comfortable, and I loved how I could run my hands up and down my body and feel the curves, even though it wasn't laced tight. There is some flaring at my ribs and waist, but research tells me that it's normal and to be expected. The corset fits really well, with no weirdly shaped gaps in the laces or anything. As I am a newbie, I am not sure how far up to wear it but I guess during my seasoning I'll work it out. Planning to wear it 2 hrs every day for a week at a snug yet comfortable fit.
When I put it on, I just tightened the long laces not the X's. As I go through my seasoning I'll play with them a little, just to get the feel of things. I don't intend to undergo any waist training, I bought the corset merely so I could get the feel and look of Victorian dress. I intend to wear it both underneath and overtop of clothing once I get brave enough. Also, people complain about how difficult it is to lace a corset by yourself, but I found it pretty easy. Probably an advantage of having a short underbust compared to a scary but beautiful overbust.
I'll add more short posts about my seasoning process as I go.
TTFN
So I generally have a love for all things Victorian - well the social side and fashion to be exact. It would have been the most beautiful period to be born into, with those gorgeous dresses and lovely figures. As a result I have an interest in corsetry, and after watching Madame Bovary (click here for link - Ezra Millar is so gorgeous...) I went a little overboard in my interest and ended up buying a $120 24" short underbust corset.
The site I went to is based in Auckland, New Zealand (corseterie.co.nz) where a lovely lady Jill makes all the corsets they stock. I emailed her with my waist size (27") and she emailed me back with a recommendation. My corset is polyester and cotton, with waist tape, a few spiral steel bones (haven't counted them yet) with a solid busk and flat steel bones for the lacing.
The first wear was surprisingly comfortable, and I loved how I could run my hands up and down my body and feel the curves, even though it wasn't laced tight. There is some flaring at my ribs and waist, but research tells me that it's normal and to be expected. The corset fits really well, with no weirdly shaped gaps in the laces or anything. As I am a newbie, I am not sure how far up to wear it but I guess during my seasoning I'll work it out. Planning to wear it 2 hrs every day for a week at a snug yet comfortable fit.
When I put it on, I just tightened the long laces not the X's. As I go through my seasoning I'll play with them a little, just to get the feel of things. I don't intend to undergo any waist training, I bought the corset merely so I could get the feel and look of Victorian dress. I intend to wear it both underneath and overtop of clothing once I get brave enough. Also, people complain about how difficult it is to lace a corset by yourself, but I found it pretty easy. Probably an advantage of having a short underbust compared to a scary but beautiful overbust.
I'll add more short posts about my seasoning process as I go.
TTFN
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
I left Facebook! What's on my mind? 6 months later
I broke it off with Facebook because I was starting my
postgraduate degree and decided that it was just another distraction that I
didn’t need. FB didn’t want me to leave; even though I’d specifically hunted
down the delete rather than the deactivate button, Mr Zuckerberg and his mates
still gave me a two week window to come crawling back. I didn’t. So, without
further ado, here are some thoughts that I’ve been thinking since I went cold
turkey:
1. I’ve been on Facebook since I was 14 (I’m now 21) and was
accessing the website and app three times a day on average. As such I
considered myself mildly addicted. But, there were no withdrawal symptoms! I
felt oddly detached from social media at first, having no Twitter, Tumblr,
Instagram or other accounts. Despite this I haven’t missed it in the slightest.
2. It’s forced me to keep in touch (via text and email
generally) with friends who don’t live in my town. It’s funny how posting a
video link to a friend’s wall can almost feel like ‘Hey, we’ve been in contact
now, thanks for the like’. Or even scrolling past on another friends timeline
feels like you’ve caught up on their life and you’ve done your ‘catching up’
duty for at least a month.
3. Leading on from the above, all my friends are still on
Facebook. And for a lot of them, it’s their primary mode of contact. So I don’t
hear from my out-of-town friends very often. It’s made me feel a bit lonely,
and sad that some of said friends just can’t make the effort to send a ‘hey,
how are you?’ text. I wonder what would happen if everyone left FB.
4. I'm sorry to say that a grand total of three of my friends wished me a happy birthday. Though the important friends did show up to my party, it made me feel rather discounted and alone.
5. I finally understand how integrated social media is in
every-day life, and I now feel like an outsider, in a minority. According to
Google, ‘how many people are on Facebook?’ is searched more than ‘how many
people are on earth? Go on, search it.
6. There is a heck of a lot less drama in my life. Facebook
is one big source of your daily bullshit.
7. I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TIME. Granted, some of that time is
spent on YouTube, but despite this I am so much more focused on study without
annoying notifications or wondering if the guy I like will respond to or ignore
my private message. That damn ‘seen’ popup message!
8. I am happier, and am more concerned about real lives
rather than the façades
I see online.
I encourage you all to leave Facebook, even if it’s just for
a little while, and see what kind of difference it makes. Lock your online life
in a box and text that friend you haven’t seen/heard from in a while. I promise
you, they’ll appreciate it.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
On Leaving University (for now)
I have finished my Bachelors degree packed up my room and moved to a new place to start a new job.
Yes I am incredibly lucky and I know it! I have busted my ass and as a result, opportunities have been handed to me on a seemingly gilded platter. However, I am learning that everything comes with a compromise.
Because I am grieving.
This is new and alien, I did not know that you could grieve memories, a place, a period of life. The last three years have been the best of my life so far, and I desperately want to go back and do it all again because it has all ended far too soon. Relationships have been left only half formed and it leaves me wondering whether they will stand the test of time and distance, the two largest barriers to development and closeness, in my humble opinion.
And yes I know the world is my oyster and that I should move forward with leaping strides. And I will, but right now I am stuck in a sort of mental rut, It just seems that so many kinds of emotions have fallen on me rather heavily...uncertainess, hurt, sadness, grief, loneliness yet I am elated and can taste some sort of freedom on the tip of my tongue, some sort of openess at the ends of my nerves.
I am not the same person I was two, even one year ago. I feel like I know myself reasonably well, developing in all sorts of interesting directions. It's a good thing and I know that.
But sometimes it is really quite terrifying and I do not know how I should be reacting.
Also the red hot chili peppers are great for this kind of uncertain mental state.
Rook Piercing Experience
So I've wanted a rook for a few months now, and finally went and got it done on the 28th of October, so it's coming up to two weeks healing. Thought I'd share my experience with the piercing itself and healing (so far) cos doing background research before I decided was really important to me.
It set me back $45 (incl. jewellery) and I got it done at Bohemian Arts Tattoo, Tauranga, New Zealand. I already had one tattoo done there so I thought I may as well go back. Everyone knows that pain is subjective, but for me this hurt like a BITCH. And I have a pretty high pain tolerance so that is saying something. I had a little bit of bleeding, during the piercing itself and the day after.
Healing so far has been very easy ( I'm cleaning it with soaped up fingers, not antibacterial or anything) during my shower, then cleaning with a antibacterial solution and finishing with a diluted tea tree oil spray afterwards. Bit of pain during the first three days, couldn't sleep on it. Pain went away until the fourth and fifth day where it got pretty bad, just took two paracetamol and it went away. No swelling, and as of now no pain at all, just a small ache when I clean it, can sleep on it if I cradle my ear with my hand which is no drama (10th November)
Will update at the end of the month! Hopefully this helps somewhere because there are lots of horrible piercing experiences out there, which I would guess is just a small proportion of people. Don't let it put you off!
Two months later, 28/12: No pain at all except for when I accidentally gave it a nasty knock, causing it to bleed a little, was fine the next day. I've stopped cleaning it everyday except after I've been in a chlorine pool. No pain while sleeping. Occasionally a little bit of crust will accumulate but I just clean that away, it's not associated with any pain. I don't think this needs any more updates, so good luck and have fun getting pierced :D
Healing so far has been very easy ( I'm cleaning it with soaped up fingers, not antibacterial or anything) during my shower, then cleaning with a antibacterial solution and finishing with a diluted tea tree oil spray afterwards. Bit of pain during the first three days, couldn't sleep on it. Pain went away until the fourth and fifth day where it got pretty bad, just took two paracetamol and it went away. No swelling, and as of now no pain at all, just a small ache when I clean it, can sleep on it if I cradle my ear with my hand which is no drama (10th November)
Will update at the end of the month! Hopefully this helps somewhere because there are lots of horrible piercing experiences out there, which I would guess is just a small proportion of people. Don't let it put you off!
Two months later, 28/12: No pain at all except for when I accidentally gave it a nasty knock, causing it to bleed a little, was fine the next day. I've stopped cleaning it everyday except after I've been in a chlorine pool. No pain while sleeping. Occasionally a little bit of crust will accumulate but I just clean that away, it's not associated with any pain. I don't think this needs any more updates, so good luck and have fun getting pierced :D
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
My poetry
So recently I've decided to 'come out of the closet' so to speak, but not in the homosexual manner. Put away your lesbian fantasies right now, thank-you-very-much!
No, I am a poet and would like everyone to know it! (unintentional rhyme).
I've been writing free verse with a passion since I was thirteen or so; but was enjoying writing it in school since the age of eleven. First it was just the teenage angsty stuff; tired metaphors and cliches about not fitting in and butterfly crushes. I think that's where it ends for a lot of people. Not for me however, 20 years old and still going strong, I suppose, and I'm actually starting to realise that maybe, just maybe, my stuff isn't actually that bad. Bonus points for discovering that a distant relative (I'm talking three or four generations back, on my dad's side) was once a published poet.
I guess I've been pretty reclusive, I really don't think there's a single person in the world that I could give my little book of pencil scribblings (always pencil, I detest writing in pen) to and say 'here, read whatever the heck you want!' for the simple reason that 99% of everything I write is really quite personal. Seriously though, it's all grayscale, raw, rich truth. Realise then, that if I ever decide to share entire poems with you, you should appreciate it, because for me there is no better way for me to say 'I trust you and you are a very important person in my life'. And if I write poetry FOR someone, like a friend, family member, lover, whoever, well that is a entirely new level all together. Even if I'm wrong about that person later and they've screwed me over or something, the words I have written will always, always be true. I guess because I write in pencil, I have the power to erase everything. But I never have, even with words that are associated with people that don't give me pleasant feelings now.
Moving into performance poetry (also known as spoken word or slam poetry) has been a huge leap of faith for me. I've discovered it is easy enough to perform in front of strangers; though when it comes to people I care about,my heart hammers and my legs tremble and I have to shift my weight to stop myself from falling over. Let alone looking them in the eye, oh no, I will gaze at a spot on the wall until it's over and I can sit down and...breathe.
Words have always been a passion for me; always a reader, always a writer. Why poetry? you may wonder. BECAUSE IT HAS NO RULES! There are no grammar, punctuation rules! You can take things completely out of its normal context and mess with it in any way you like. This is also why I've been a bit wary of poetry competitions; how can one define good poetry? You can't, and that is what makes it one of the most expressive forms of literature. That also means that anyone, everyone can write. And don't give me bull about 'how you have no talent' or you 'just can't' because those are excuses. Also, for the record, poetry is not 'girly' I can guarantee that the majority of the most widely celebrated and classic poets are men. Some beautiful beautiful stuff they have produced too.
My favourite modern poet: Sujata Bhatt
My favourite classic poets: John Keats and John Masefield
And a famous New Zealand poet: James K. Baxter
I guess I owe you a few scraps of my stuff:
'My Mind is fringed with peacock plume,
My Dreams are tinged with an endless sea...
This is my place' (plan to get this as a tattoo one day)
'Mountains chasing the coast,
turn back
in defeat;
as the mighty power of the ocean roars
its challenge.
Sinous rivers flow,
silently, slowly
freshwater slipping past
saltine currents.'
'Who said night time had to be lonely?
I had never felt so comforted
By the voices that will never speak'
I'll admit even these seemingly vanilla verses are hard to share.
If you got this far, congratulations! I appreciate it :)
No, I am a poet and would like everyone to know it! (unintentional rhyme).
I've been writing free verse with a passion since I was thirteen or so; but was enjoying writing it in school since the age of eleven. First it was just the teenage angsty stuff; tired metaphors and cliches about not fitting in and butterfly crushes. I think that's where it ends for a lot of people. Not for me however, 20 years old and still going strong, I suppose, and I'm actually starting to realise that maybe, just maybe, my stuff isn't actually that bad. Bonus points for discovering that a distant relative (I'm talking three or four generations back, on my dad's side) was once a published poet.
I guess I've been pretty reclusive, I really don't think there's a single person in the world that I could give my little book of pencil scribblings (always pencil, I detest writing in pen) to and say 'here, read whatever the heck you want!' for the simple reason that 99% of everything I write is really quite personal. Seriously though, it's all grayscale, raw, rich truth. Realise then, that if I ever decide to share entire poems with you, you should appreciate it, because for me there is no better way for me to say 'I trust you and you are a very important person in my life'. And if I write poetry FOR someone, like a friend, family member, lover, whoever, well that is a entirely new level all together. Even if I'm wrong about that person later and they've screwed me over or something, the words I have written will always, always be true. I guess because I write in pencil, I have the power to erase everything. But I never have, even with words that are associated with people that don't give me pleasant feelings now.
Moving into performance poetry (also known as spoken word or slam poetry) has been a huge leap of faith for me. I've discovered it is easy enough to perform in front of strangers; though when it comes to people I care about,my heart hammers and my legs tremble and I have to shift my weight to stop myself from falling over. Let alone looking them in the eye, oh no, I will gaze at a spot on the wall until it's over and I can sit down and...breathe.
Words have always been a passion for me; always a reader, always a writer. Why poetry? you may wonder. BECAUSE IT HAS NO RULES! There are no grammar, punctuation rules! You can take things completely out of its normal context and mess with it in any way you like. This is also why I've been a bit wary of poetry competitions; how can one define good poetry? You can't, and that is what makes it one of the most expressive forms of literature. That also means that anyone, everyone can write. And don't give me bull about 'how you have no talent' or you 'just can't' because those are excuses. Also, for the record, poetry is not 'girly' I can guarantee that the majority of the most widely celebrated and classic poets are men. Some beautiful beautiful stuff they have produced too.
My favourite modern poet: Sujata Bhatt
My favourite classic poets: John Keats and John Masefield
And a famous New Zealand poet: James K. Baxter
I guess I owe you a few scraps of my stuff:
'My Mind is fringed with peacock plume,
My Dreams are tinged with an endless sea...
This is my place' (plan to get this as a tattoo one day)
'Mountains chasing the coast,
turn back
in defeat;
as the mighty power of the ocean roars
its challenge.
Sinous rivers flow,
silently, slowly
freshwater slipping past
saltine currents.'
'Who said night time had to be lonely?
I had never felt so comforted
By the voices that will never speak'
I'll admit even these seemingly vanilla verses are hard to share.
If you got this far, congratulations! I appreciate it :)
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Things I don't want to do today vs. things I want to do today
Pulling into procrastination station.
THINGS I DON'T WANT TO DO TODAY
1. Study
2. Study some more
3. Go to work...mm it's only a 4 hour shift but still!
4. Feel soft and useless...yuck.
5. Write crappy prose/poetry
6. Cook
7. Drive...wish supermarkets had delivery for purchases under $20
8. Look at my bank account
9. Continuously check Facebook. YES I am addicted like the rest of you...don't even try to hide it.
10. Procrastinate
THINGS I WANT TO DO TODAY
1. Find my motivation!! Then I will want to study
2. Eat lots of snickers and lindt chocolate and guylian belgian chocolates...o yea. Unfortunately my bank account does not allow for this kind of thing.
2b...but I do I have an overdraft...
3. Somehow gain money by not doing anything.
4. Get a small tattoo...I think a little simple kiwi with 'Made in NZ' underneath, just below my armpit. Again my bank account SAYS NO. Bugger you.
5. Write AWESOME poetry and prose.
6. Sit in the rain...I want it to rain
7. Suddenly develop a cold. This means no work which means no money which means no chocolate which means no life! Such sad problems I have
8. Go home and see my cat and giant puppy dog. Meow woof through the interwebs!
9. Eat McDonalds for dinner. But I have vegetables that need eating...eh.
10. CLAIM SOME COURSE RELATED COSTS!!! best idea ever.
11. Read read and read some more.
12. Watch a bunch of movies in a theater.
So these lists aren't really balanced, but hey, I officially managed to waste 15 minutes of time. Sure I'll never get that back, but do I care? No, no I do not.
That's all folks
THINGS I DON'T WANT TO DO TODAY
1. Study
2. Study some more
3. Go to work...mm it's only a 4 hour shift but still!
4. Feel soft and useless...yuck.
5. Write crappy prose/poetry
6. Cook
7. Drive...wish supermarkets had delivery for purchases under $20
8. Look at my bank account
9. Continuously check Facebook. YES I am addicted like the rest of you...don't even try to hide it.
10. Procrastinate
THINGS I WANT TO DO TODAY
1. Find my motivation!! Then I will want to study
2. Eat lots of snickers and lindt chocolate and guylian belgian chocolates...o yea. Unfortunately my bank account does not allow for this kind of thing.
2b...but I do I have an overdraft...
3. Somehow gain money by not doing anything.
4. Get a small tattoo...I think a little simple kiwi with 'Made in NZ' underneath, just below my armpit. Again my bank account SAYS NO. Bugger you.
5. Write AWESOME poetry and prose.
6. Sit in the rain...I want it to rain
7. Suddenly develop a cold. This means no work which means no money which means no chocolate which means no life! Such sad problems I have
8. Go home and see my cat and giant puppy dog. Meow woof through the interwebs!
9. Eat McDonalds for dinner. But I have vegetables that need eating...eh.
10. CLAIM SOME COURSE RELATED COSTS!!! best idea ever.
11. Read read and read some more.
12. Watch a bunch of movies in a theater.
So these lists aren't really balanced, but hey, I officially managed to waste 15 minutes of time. Sure I'll never get that back, but do I care? No, no I do not.
That's all folks
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